Love and War
by TheRealMrs.Mellark
Summary: All is fair in Love and War. The royal children of Arkia and The Grounds will soon discover this.
1. Dawn

**Welcome Bellarke Shippers. This is a story I have been working on so far, and I have almost half of the story complete. This is about Clarke, Princess of Arkia. I hope you like this AU! Please, let me know what you think in the comments!**

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"I can't go anywhere, I can't do anything, no I can't close my eyes without you in my dreams." ~I See You (Luke Bryan)

 **Clarke POV:**

Long ago, we were one.

There was one civilization, and one people. We lived in harmony and peace, but that was before the civil war.

Those who favored strength over knowledge wanted control, and vice versa.

It was long thought out before war was declared. The positives and negatives were both considered, but in the end there seemed to be no possible solution. The war lasted for three years, until our whole civilization broke apart. We were broken into the Grounders and the Arkians.

The Grounders were those who favored strength. They tended to be big, unintelligent brutes.

The Arkians were those who were small, weak, intelligents.

At least that is what history has told us.

I am Clarke Griffin, Princess of the Arkians. When the Grounders left, we became a civil, advanced society. My father Jake, the King, has long ruled with grace and poise, as well as his father before him, and so forth.

It has been 100 years since the civil war, and a new problem has arose.

I am an only child.

Ever since the war, it has been decided that only a son may take the place of the throne. My mother was lucky she was able to have one child, and so now I have four months before I turn 18, and I have to find a suitor.

Great.

In one month I will have a ball, where I will meet all the 'eligible' men. No one dared to even ask what I wanted. Or if I even wanted a husband. I know that many girls in Arkia would die to be in my position, but honestly I would rather take a bullet to my head.

I didn't want to get married. I wanted to travel to the ocean, I wanted to paint my days away, or play the piano, even just read as many books as I could. I wanted to experience life. I didn't want this on my shoulders.

I sighed and looked down at my perfectly painted toes. Blue to match my eyes. I moved away from the window of my bedroom and to my closet. I threw on a pair of black running pants and a tank top. I put my hair back in a ponytail, and quietly exited my room.

I padded quietly down the white hallway and heard a quiet mumbling in the dining room.

I pressed my ear against the thick metal door. Everything was hand activated, with the most technological advanced system to protect us. From what, I wasn't sure, but I had a good idea.

Grounders.

I knew my father had been receiving letters from them for quite some time, but I could never get my hands on one. I had a feeling my father burned them in the fireplace after reading them.

I couldn't hear a word they were saying. I furrowed my brows and pushed myself off the door. I moved down the hallway and took a sharp turn to the left, where hidden just ever so slightly under a table was the entrance to the attic. I knew I wasn't supposed to go up there. As a princess however, there were only so many things I could do to rebel.

I slid under the table and pushed open the square entrance. I crawled in, and kicked the door shut. I crawled up, and continued to army crawl around before I found the opening that was over the dining room. It was like a porthole that looked down into the room. I crawled over to it and rested my elbows on the edge of it as I peered down into the dining room.

I saw my father and mother in a deep discussion.

"Abigail it is something we need to consider." My father said leaning against the back of his chair. I saw a paper in front of him. I squinted hard at it, but it was near impossible to read from where I was. It must have been another letter from the Grounders.

"Are you serious Jake? Imagine how Clarke would react. A Grounder?" My mother said. Me? A Grounder?

"This could be the first step Abigail. Clarke has a duty as Princess. Even if I don't like it either, there couldn't be any harm in this now could there?" he said boring his eyes into hers. I didn't like the sound of this at all. They seemed to be in a silent debate for a while before my mother sighed.

"You get to tell her." she said in defeat.

I quickly crawled down the tunnel and rolled out of the entrance before I got caught. I shut the door and brushed myself off.

Hell. This was not helping matters.

I turned down the main hallway and quickly walked in front of the dining room door which quickly opened.

"Good morning sweetie." my mother said with the sickest of smiles.

"Good morning." I said standing stiff. I knew that once I walked into that room, I was going to hear something I didn't want to hear. My mom moved over and gestured for me to enter. I took a deep breath and walked slowly over to where my father was sitting at the head of the table. The pieces of paper still on the table. This concerned me on many different levels.

"Good morning Princess." my father said. I hated when people called me Princess. It made me feel awkward.

"Good morning." I said still standing.

"Sit down. We need to talk." he said looking up to meet my eyes. His blue eyes mirroring mine. I knew he was nervous, maybe even more nervous to say what he had to say, than I was to hear it.

I slid out my chair, and I could hear the scraping of the wood on the floor. I slowly sat down on the cushioned chair. I looked down at my plate and felt my jaw clench. I could tell that he and my mother were watching me as if I was a basket case. One of the juveniles who ended up in the box.

"Sweetheart-"

"What is going on?" I demanded, interrupting my father. He looked at me with raised eyebrows. I bit my lip and looked up at him, I felt like a small child. I was a small child. I had no reasoning for being here. There was no sane reason for me to have to hear whatever was about to come out of his mouth.

"Princess," my father began. "I have been receiving letters from the Grounder Royalty." he strained to get out. No shit I thought to myself, but I had to act surprised. I didn't need my parents getting suspicious.

"About what?" I asked.

"Word still travels, and it has reached their attention of your needing of a suitor." my father says slowly.

Oh fuck.

Images of Grounders danced in my head, as I pictured them at my ball.

"They're coming here?" I breathed out, unable to grasp the concept.

"They will be sending a few of their greatest heroes, one of them, the Grounder Prince." he said looking down at his plate. Now I understood clearly. They wanted me to pick the Grounder Prince, so our union could slowly start to drift together.

"I don't want them here." I said staring at him.

"Sweetheart," my mother begins.

"No." I interrupt.

"I still get to choose a suitor and I guarantee you, it will not be a Grounder. Especially not the Grounder Prince." I yell. I remember as I am speaking that I do have a voice. I am a Princess, not a prisoner. I get a say.

"You have a duty to these people Clarke." my father raises his voice.

"I also have a duty to myself." I snap back. He bangs his fist against the dining room table.

"Damn it Clarke." he yells. I stand up, practically shoving the chair behind me as I do so.

"I'm out." I said and walked out of the room, ignoring the deadly silence that seems to have everyone at the throat. I hear the quiet swish of the electronic doors shut behind me as I walk out, it is not at all the amount of drama I wish it had.

I walk back to my room and look in the mirror, this was ridiculous. It wasn't even nine in the morning yet, and my future had already been boxed with a big bow and shipped off.

I hear my phone buzz on my counter and see that it is a message from one of my best friends Harper. I slide it open and read that we are going out today. She says she has a surprise for me. I roll my eyes. She always has a surprise for me, whether I like it or not.

I decide to change before I leave. I slip on a pair of jeans and a black v-neck short sleeved shirt. I leave my short blonde hair down, and finish getting ready. I slide my phone into the back pocket of my jeans which have gold sequins on them. I slide on a pair of black converse shoes, and then slip out of my room.

I quietly make my way down to the back entrance, where I sneak out, and run. I run to the woods, and away from all this advanced technology, and the idea of leading people. After running for a good couple minutes I slow my run to a jog, and then to a walk. I follow the familiar trail that my friends and I have had for years, it's a place for us to get away.

There are only a handful of us, considering I don't get out much. Everyday I wake up, have breakfast with my parents, then I have my private classes until lunch, and then I have classes again until around three. After that I have piano, and then painting. After that it's dinner time, and then I spend the rest of my night reading. I have read almost every book in the royal library.

Our castle is a bit different from the ones that were built hundreds of years ago before our ancestors. It is like a big box. It is white with a few chrome details, as everything is around here.

The whole place is crawling with people who want to be the most technologically forward. They want the whitest, the fastest, the plainest thing they can get their hands on.

The sidewalks are cement, and the roads don't ever fade.

Our vehicles are those that don't use fossil fuels, we got rid of those decades ago.

The streets are lined with perfect houses, that seem miniscule compared to the castle. Even though they are the standard size for a family of four.

There are no animals, people say they are linked with nature, which is apparently linked to stupidity. I have read about all sorts of animals, from dolphins to horses to tigers.

They all seem intelligent to me.

I think about this as I walk farther and farther away from our civilization, and into the woods. As I go deeper and deeper into the forested area, I think about why there are no animals in what seems to be a twenty mile radius, it is probably because of something that we put in the woods.

We probably scared them all off.

What bastards we are.

I finally slow down to a shuffle when I hear voices. I strain my ears and listen for not what they're saying, but who's saying it. There seem to be two female voices, and three male voices. I smile, I can tell exactly who they are. I step into the clear where I find my best friends.

There is Harper, with long auburn hair which I envy. Long hair is an anomaly around here.

Then there is Maya, with tan skin, and dark short hair.

Then there were our boys, Wells, Jasper, and Monty.

Wells was dark skinned, his family was very close to mine.

Jasper and Monty were best of friends. Jasper had dark unruly hair and a crooked nose. Monty had a touch of Asian in his genes, as his small dark eyes smiled at me.

"There's the Princess." Harper said and they all gave me a hug as I rolled my eyes.

"What are we doing?" I asked, they all had bags and a buzz seemed to be thriving around them. They all looked around each other with grins.

"We're gonna take an old truck and drive to the ocean." Wells said finally. I gasped.

The ocean was bordering on Grounder territory. Where we lived, the days were warm and the nights were cool. We got a few seasons, but they came and went quickly. Grounders lived far south, where the days and nights were hot, and they barely saw any change in the seasons. They had different vegetation and landscapes on their territory.

"Are you crazy?" I breathed out. We would either end up dead or imprisoned on either side by the end of the night. Prisoned on the Grounder side for trespassing, and imprisoned on the Arkian side for betrayal.

"Come on Princess. It'll be fun!" Jasper said.

"He's right, and let's be real how much fun are you gonna be able to have in four months?" Maya piped up.

"You know you want to." Monty said nudging his shoulder with mine.

"What do you say sunshine?" Wells said looking at me, using the nickname that he's had for me ever since day one. I sighed and looked at all their hopeful faces.

"Oh come on Clarke." Harper said growing annoyed, and that's what got me. When she used my real name it made me softer, it reminded me that I was a person. I had a say, and an opinion on what I could do with my life and my time.

"What's the plan?" I asked and they all cheered.

"Put this on." Wells said handing me a black mask. I took it from him and looked at him with question written all over my face.

"It's something deep sea fisherman use. They use it to keep the salt water away from their mouth and nose." he said.

"Why do I need it?" I asked as I slipped it over my head. It covered the bottom half of my face completely, only leaving my eyes and forehead open.

"To hide your identity." Monty said.

"Now for your hair." Harper said pulling it up into a bun, while Jasper shoved a black baseball hat on my head.

"Perfect." Maya said smiling. I rolled my eyes, this was not where I thought my day was going to be going.

"What about you guys?" I asked, and they all pulled similar items out of their bags. Of course. "How are we getting there again?" I asked.

"Jasper will be driving us." Monty said and they all continued down the path, where an old beat up truck was resting.

"What the hell?" I asked confused.

"It was my dads, before we switched over to solar energy." Jasper said.

"We have enough gas to make us around the world and back considering no one uses it anymore." Wells said smiling. I stood there, I knew my duty was to go back, and not to get in that truck. I knew I wasn't supposed to be breaking law, I mean I was one of the leaders. I should be enforcing them, not breaking them. I sighed.

"Oh fine. But I get to ride in the bed." I said climbing up into the bed of the truck and sitting down. They all cheered and threw the rest of their bags in the trunk with me. They all climbed into the front of the truck, and I layed on my back and rested my head on one of the bags. I looked up and the perfectly clear sky.

If anything happens, I'll just say I was kidnapped.

I hear Jasper start the engine, and before I know it, we've started the trek south to where the Grounder territory is. I wonder how they even know where it is, or what we'll do when we reach it. I don't care anymore.

Today is for me.

I watch the clouds change from miniscule, to large puffs. The breeze picks up, and the sun beats down on my skin. I begin to regret wearing my jeans today, as I start to feel sweat join at the back of my neck. I close my eyes, and as I sway back and forth in the bed of the truck, I fall asleep.

When I wake up I feel hot. Too hot. I sit up and see we're still driving. I groan, this suicide mission is already killing me.

I dig around in the bags until I find a bottle full of water. I drink a bit of it and relax a little. I look around and feel myself panic a bit. We are surrounded by plants that I have never seen before.

They are of different species, heights, widths, and colors. I don't think I have ever seen so many different plants in one location before. I crawl over to the edge of the truck where I peer over to find we have long left cement roads, and are now on a gravel road.

I look up and swivel my head left and right before sitting back down and accepting that we are approaching Grounder territory, and quickly. I pound on the window on the back of the truck and they open a little portion of it that slides open.

"Yes Princess?" Monty asks me with a winning smile.

"When will we arrive in Grounder territory?" I ask. I cringe at the sound of my own voice, I sound like my father.

"Approximately twenty minutes, and then we'll ride the territory line to the ocean from there." Jasper answers me from the drivers seat. I breathe, at least we won't be going into the territory exactly. I sit back in the bed and watch the world around me change.

I watch until Harper knocks on the window, and gestures to me that we have reached the territory line. I sit up and watch as Jasper slows the vehicle, and we roll close to the line where I turn and see a barbwire fence.

I didn't know if it was to keep us in or out, and which side wanted us where.

Jasper turned the truck and we followed the barbwire fence. We edged along it, all of us having our eyes peeled to the forest on the other side. I could hear bird calls, and rustling in the brush.

I wanted to jump out and run in, I wanted to figure out what was there. That was what I did. I figured things out. People, places, paintings, music. All of it was here to discover what it had, and what it really meant.

I thought I saw a flash of dark hair as we drove along, long dark hair. I wanted to jump out and start yelling for them to come out. But I knew if I did, we would all be dead. We continued to drive along the road when suddenly Jasper came to a halt.

We all jerked around and looked to see Jasper had stopped because there was a baby deer in our path. It was bleeding and cut up really bad, it probably tried to get through the fence. Jasper began to drive around it when I jumped out of the truck and to the baby deer.

It had big brown eyes, and the softest ears. I reached out, and when I reached the surface of it's fur, my hand was instantly coated in blood. I felt my heart sink as the little animal cried out. I reached for my shirt and pulled it off, I had a tank top underneath my shirt, so I didn't mind sharing mine with the little deer. I gently patted the cuts until the deer stopped moaning.

"Okay little guy, it's gonna be okay." I whispered, realizing I still had the mask on my face.

"You know, if you're gonna save that deer, a shirt isn't going to help much."

"Wells, it's not like you have a better-" I began to address the voice. When I turned to discover the voice didn't belong to Wells. There was a stranger, who was also masked. All I could see were his dark brown eyes, and dark unruly hair.

He was big. Much bigger than me. He had on dark clothes. Dark jeans, and a dark shirt. He had black shoes on, they looked like something from the old west that I had read about. Something the cowboys would wear. Under his eyes, he had black lines. He also had a single line drawn down his forehead. On his head he had some sort of hat that was also dark. It looked like something the cowboys also would wear.

We stared at eachother for a long time. All we were able to see were eachothers eyes, being as both our noses and mouths were covered.

"I didn't know what else to do. I- I've never-"

"Seen a deer?" the stranger asked as I stammered out something.

"Had a baby one dying in front of me." I snapped. The stranger jerked back, and his eyebrows yanked up in surprise. He stared at me long and hard.

"What are you doing out here?" he asked me.

"I could ask you the same thing." I said, trying to maintain my poise, while also crumbling. He could tell too. I knew he could tell.

"Honey why don't you just go home?" he asked me crossing his arms. He had an accent that I had never heard before. His voice was deeper than anyone I had ever heard before. I crossed mine as well, showing that I was not going to back down to this man.

"Home is pretty far from here. We came for the beach." I say squinting my eyes at him.

"You wouldn't want to be caught now would you?" he said with a playful look in his eyes. A bit of fear coursed through me. He was bluffing. I kept calm and decided to act like I wasn't scared.

"Sorry, but you don't tell me what to do bud." I said and I sauntered back to the truck.

"Hey blue eyes," he hollered at me as I swung one leg over the side of the bed. I looked back at him expectantly. "I'll see you around." he said, and he scooped up the baby deer. He jumped over the barbwire fence and disappeared into the woods.

I felt myself breathe, I hadn't even realized I was holding my breath. I guess we never do until you let it out.

I slid completely back into the truck and looked to see my friends were all staring at me with eyes as wide as saucers. Before they could say anything I held a hand up, and pointed forward in a gesture for us to keep moving forward.

They didn't say a word, but I could tell everything they were thinking.

I knew that it didn't correspond with my thoughts at all.

That rude ignorant Grounder! How dare he try and tell me what to do, he should know that I am the damn Arkian Princess. I didn't want one bit of that. He was everything I expected him to be. Demanding, bossy, and condescending. He made my blood boil. I didn't even know what to curse, because I didn't know his name.

I groaned and thought about the way the corners of his eyes crinkled, as if he was smirking at me under the black cloth that covered his mouth. The way he towered over me, making me feel miniscule and weak. The way he had a scent of fresh air and freedom wavering about him.

I shook my head out of my thoughts as we arrived at the beach. They all hopped out of the truck and we slowly made our way to the sand.

The white sand. It was warm, but at this time of day it wasn't burning your feet off.

The water was bright blue with the sun shining over it.

"We made it!" Monty hollered as he ran to the water. We all laughed and followed him. We splashed in the water and ran on the sand.

I wish I had a camera, or that I could take pictures on my phone. I knew that if I did though, we would be caught. It didn't matter how well I hid them, they would come up. I took as many mental pictures, so I could go home and paint it.

We stayed there for what seemed like only a few minutes, but time told us differently. We had been there for a few hours, and if we wanted to make it home without being caught, we would have to leave now.

We all climbed back into the truck and began the drive home. As I sat in the bed of the truck, thoughts about the Grounder returned into my mind.

How his brown eyes seemed to read into my soul without even knowing me. The way my heart stopped when he called me 'blue eyes'. The way he held himself with a particular air that proved he was sure of himself.

I wish I could be as sure of myself as he seemed to be. I rolled my eyes at my own thoughts. I didn't have time for these feelings. I would never see him again anyway. I get to go home and marry someone I don't want too, all while pretending to love being Princess Arkian.

Great.

I wish I could be like Harper. She gets to go to regular school with everyone else. She has many more friends, while she is my best friend. She gets to experience regular teen things that I get to read about in books.

How we run things is different that we had run things in the past. I'm sure the Grounders run things differently there. I know for a fact that they have had the same technological advancement opportunities as we have, but what we don't know is what they have done with it. How they run things, and how their hierarchy works. I wish I did, that would make things a whole lot easier on everyone.

I put my head in my hands as I think of how high the stakes are. We have lines drawn all over the place, and no one can tell if they're winning or losing. It's like the war never really finished. I feel a few tears form in the corners of my eyes. This isn't the life I wanted, but it was the one I was granted. I wipe the tears away and sniffle. I shake myself out of the dark place which only enters my mind during the night.

I look up at the sky and realize I have been in my thoughts for far too long. The night has come, and the stars have come out. I lean back and watch the stars roll past my eyes. I wish I could dance along the stars. I bet it's nicer out there.

"Hey Princess, you okay out there?" Monty asks. I nod my head and rub my arms. I wish I was in bed. As much as I hate to admit it, I really do want to be in my own bed.

I wanted to paint, I wanted the comfort of a brush and colors. That was something that we didn't get much of where I come from. It's always been a clean canvas. It's been white and bright and never different.

I look around and start to recognize sights, and then I breathe a little better knowing that I'll be home soon.

The truck eventually stops, just as I eventually make it to the castle, and eventually get yelled at, and eventually make it to my room.

The days turn into weeks, and the week's turn into a month. All I've been able to do is hide in my room and think about the brown eyes of the Grounder. My room has turned into a mess of canvas after canvas of images from that one day. I knew that it was a day that was going to change everything.

I hear my mother knock on my door, tomorrow is the ball. The one where I get to choose who I marry.

Fun right?

I am seated at my easel once more, painting a picture of Monty and Harper on the beach. I smile at the memory, it seems like so long ago when my feet touched the warm sand and felt the salt air on my face. I wondered what other secrets they hid in Grounder territory. They seemed to hide the best men out there. I wondered what the women were like.

My mother stands behind me and watches me paint. I feel her eyes on me, rather than my painting. The only sound is the strokes of my brush against the smooth canvas.

"I don't understand how you come up with these things Clarkey." she says, breaking the quiet.

"I told you. I have vivid dreams." I mutter. I knew she had her suspicions, but I wasn't about to confirm anything.

"You should get some sleep honey." my mother says.

"I don't care." I say in the most unemotional tone I could muster.

"We know you don't Clarke, which is why this is a problem." my mother says sighing and sitting down on my bed. "We don't understand why you aren't at least a little excited for tomorrow." she said staring at me.

I didn't turn to acknowledge her at all. I was a little excited, only because I was hoping deep down that the Grounder from that day would show up. I was hoping he would, but I was also hoping that he wouldn't come.

Lord knows if it got out that we already knew each other there would be problems.

"You're right mom." I said placing my brush down. "I need a girls night before tomorrow." I said turning to face her. She looked taken aback, I knew that she thought she wouldn't win that easily. I was giving myself up to her. I didn't mind at all. I didn't need to add anymore suspicion onto myself. "Can Harper and Maya come over?" I asked her. She didn't say anything, she just nodded her head and ran out of my room. I rolled my eyes and quickly gathered all the canvases. I shoved them into my back closet and then proceeded to clean my paints. As I was shoving them back into their proper drawers, Harper and Maya burst into my room screeching.

"Clarkey!" They yelled. They were in their pajamas and I grinned as I took in their appearances.

Harper had on pink cotton pajama bottoms and a pink tank top that showed just a bit of her midriff. Maya was in a pair of blue cotton pajama shorts, and a white t-shirt. Harper had a white facemask on with her hair pulled up, while Maya simply had a headband on to keep the hair out of her face.

I took both of them into my arms and felt myself breathe. They were what I needed on nights like these.

"Come on hun. You need some help. It's nine o'clock and you don't even have a pair of shoes picked out for tomorrow." Maya said as Harper brushed my hair out of my face. I nodded my head and before I knew it I was in sleepwear with my hair in a half ponytail and a cream on my face.

We were sat at my bed with the books in front of us. They were all the things in my closet that I owned. As a Princess, I had an extensive closet, but I had a majority of it in the closet room. It was where all our clothes were. Mothers, Fathers, and mine.

We had the dress book, shoe book, accessory book, and hair book out.

"I think silver would be pretty." Maya said as we flipped through all the books, marking things we deemed acceptable.

"Yeah but red is so dramatic. You would look gorgeous." Harper said.

"What about blue, to match your eyes Clarkey?" Maya asked as she showed me a picture of a pale blue dress. It was long and flowing, but it didn't puff out like all the other Princess dresses I had seen. It had two straps that were bejeweled, and on the back it had a Victorian style ribbon with my back open. It had a tight bust and a sweetheart neckline, with jewels all over, but after my ribcage, it was tight, then began the flow. It had a bit of a train and I could envision myself in it.

I immediately scrounged through the books for what I was looking for, and when I found what I needed I flew around the bed flipping through book after book until I had found everything I needed. A pair of silver pumps, light blue nails, a hairstyle that had my hair pulled up with a braid wrapping it all up on my head. I stood back as I held all the books together with the pieces that I wanted.

"Wow." Harper said as she and Maya stood next to me looking at all the books.

"You did it Clarke. You got it done." Maya said leaning her head on my shoulder.

"Let's go show Cynthia these, before it gets too late." I say as we each pick up a book or two to show her our plans.

Cynthia was like my babysitter throughout the years. With my parents both gone a lot, she was the one who brushed my hair and gave me snack time. She was in her mid 60's, and she was the sassiest woman I knew. We knocked on her door before she swung it open with her bright green eyes smiling at us.

"I wondered when you girls would come knocking on my door." she said with her bright white teeth in contrast to her dark complexion.

She pulled us in and showed her our ideas, and she promised that it was able to happen. I smiled at her, and gave her the biggest hug. She was the one person that I knew I would forever miss. She may have been fragile, but she the grip she had on me as I pulled away showed me just how much I had affected her as well.

"You'll do brilliantly tomorrow Sunshine." she said smiling as we let go. I smiled and held back the quiver of my lip as the memories of a particular lullaby she would sing to me flooded my memory. It was of how I was her sunshine, and how I made her happy when the skies were grey. I remember how the song always ended with her begging not to have her sunshine taken away. I turned away and exited before anymore memories caused me tears. I needed to sleep before tomorrow.

Maya and Harper smiled and hugged Cynthia as well, we had all been attached to her.

We all exited and went back to my room as we got ready for bed.

As we all layed in my bed, about to fall asleep I took in a deep sniff. I felt my lower back completely unwind and my shoulders sag a bit before I went to sleep. Tomorrow when I felt nervous I would remember this. I would remember that I could get through it.

No matter what happened.


	2. The Royal Children

**Hello lovelies! I know how much I'm enjoying this story, and I would like to know how much you're enjoying it! I'll post the next chapter after we get five more reviews! We only have one as of now, so let's get it up to six okay? Thank you! I would really like to know your opinions and interpret your thoughts into the story as well! Thank you! xoxo**

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"Give me something that will haunt me, when you're not around." ~ Sparks Fly (Taylor Swift)

 **Clarke POV:**

Before I knew it, morning was tapping on my window.

"Up! Up, up, up! Let's get it going ladies!" my mother said bursting into my room as soon as the first ray had shone. We all groaned and before we knew it I was getting pulled about in every which way. Maya and Harper had gone and I wish I knew where they went, they were my rock.

"Honey, are you okay?" my mother asked as Cynthia braided my hair upon my head.

"Yes mother." I stated quietly.

"You sure?" she asked, looking at the messages on her phone, not even looking me in the eye. I looked at her eyes, which were jerking back and forth as she read something on the screen.

Her brown eyes were not mine.

"Yes." I stated sharply.

"Okay well I have something to attend to." she said as she exited the room.

"Child, you and I both know that is not the truth." Cynthia said pursing her lips at me.

"I know Cynthia, but what am I to tell her?" I asked. "She wouldn't listen to me anyway." I said sighing.

Cynthia hesitated, then dropped the pins she was using. She pulled up a stool and took my hands in hers. She had small slender fingers that worked so diligently everyday. I looked her in the eyes and smiled, I knew she was always here to listen.

"Tell me Sunshine, what is this all about?" she asked me. I sighed. Here it all came. I knew I was going to tell her.

"You know those paintings that I have been doing like crazy lately?" I asked her.

"Of course."

"Well, they're real." I said.

"Of course they are, you think I'm stupid? Baby girl, I know that those vivid images definitely don't come from no dream." she said laughing. I bubbled with laughter. Soon, we were both just laughing and wiping tears from our eyes.

"You know the one of the brown eyes?" I asked. She nodded her head. "Well, they're from a man. One that I met over there." I said.

"Ah." she said with understanding.

"I can't understand it Cynthia. I can't get him to leave my mind." I said leaning back and looking down at my hands.

"Child. You and I both know what that means. We also know who you are. Which means we know why it can't happen." she said giving me a sad smile. After a long while I nodded my head and continued to fidget with my nails. Eventually she stood up and continued with my hair. Eventually the braid made it all the way around my head.

I had to move on to my makeup, and then the dress. I put the dress on and slipped on my heels. I looked at myself in the mirror, I raked my eyes over my whole appearance. Picking out all the little details that didn't look quite right.

I knew my body type wasn't that of a Princess. I had a little bit of a pudge, and my face didn't have high cheekbones. My eyes weren't those of steel, they were of happiness. I wasn't cut out to be a Princess. I began to huff when my mother came in once more.

This time in her ball wear. She was in a dark dress with her hair also pulled up. She wasn't meant for this life either. But she fell in love with my father.

I guess you can't pick and choose who you fall in love with. It's something that just happens.

"You're just missing one thing." she said as she placed my tiara on top of my head. Right in front of the braid that wrapped around my head. I was dressed as a Princess, but I didn't want to play this part anymore.

"Alright then, let's go. Everyone is here." Mother said gesturing to the clock. seven thirty? Already? It seemed to be five o'clock just a few minutes ago. I took a deep breath and followed her. A million thoughts raced through my mind. Everyone? Already here? Did that mean the Grounders were here too? Oh god the Grounders. I felt my breathing escalate, and soon my breaths became short and choppy.

"Mom I can't do this." I said as she pulled me along.

"Oh Clarke, don't be ridiculous, yes you can." "No-" I said but soon I had reached the top of the staircase and my mom whipped around behind me and gave me a little shove. I glanced back at her, but kept my eyes forward.

I gave a my dress a little smoothing over and my tiara a little adjusting on my head. I pulled my head up, and thought to myself. 'Shoulders down, long neck, one foot in front of the other, and smile, open smile, with just a bit of teeth.' and before I knew it I was walking down the steps with everyone clapping.

"May I introduce Princess Clarke of Arkia." our royal announcer Jonathan spoke over all the commotion. As I reached the bottom of the stairs I quickly scanned the room and found Harper's Hazel eyes. She waved me over and I quickly hustled over to her and the rest of our group. They all looked amazing, everyone did.

Almost the whole civilization was here, and every teen looked their best. Not only was this a chance for me to find a suitor, it was for everyone else as well. Everyone knew that too. I could already sense all the eyes on me, both boys and girls.

"Girl, you look gorgeous." Maya said smiling.

"Thank you, you all look great too. Everyone here does." I said, and the night began.

I met several suitors, even a few girls that had winked at me. Soon it was starting to get old. The boys started to blend. Then someone whispered in my ear that the Grounders had arrived.

My head whipped around to find my Mother was seated at her throne, whilst my Father had disappeared. I locked eyes with her and she raised her eyebrows at me as she nodded her head slowly.

Oh fuck.

I looked around to find Harper laughing at something one of the boys was whispering in her ear, Jasper and Maya had disappeared as well, and Monty was surrounded by a group of boys. Wells was sitting at a table, drinking some champagne and talking to some people he must have known. I was left to my own devices and soon enough I had heard Jonathan.

"May I introduce, the Grounder Prince and Heroes." I slowly turned around and saw The Grounder.

He had the same brown eyes, and tan complexion. He was standing tall, he was in a dark black tux. He had a black crown upon his dark unruly hair. He had a bored look in his eye, even though he was smirking.

"Please welcome, Prince Bellamy Blake." Bellamy. That was his name.

He began to descend the stairs when he stopped dead in his tracks.

His eyes were locked on me.

I felt my lungs close up. Oh no. His eyebrows raised a little, his eyes widened, and his lips parted just a bit. He blinked and quickly continued his walk as he landed at the bottom of the staircase, my feet were carrying me far away.

Oh no.

He was the Prince. The Grounder I had met was the bloody Prince. That arrogant bastard, and my parents wanted me to marry him.

Hell no.

I ran to the back of the ball, and I could see the top of his head as he swam through the crowd. He was coming for me.

Jonathan still had everyone's attention as he listed off Hero after Hero and everyone had their attention on them. Thank God.

I slunk out the back door without anyone noticing and knew that he would be hot on my trail. I quick ran down the hallway and I heard the door open and I knew he was behind me.

I heard him run. I knew he would be faster than me. He was definitely bigger.

"Hey!" he yelled. He was right behind me. I quickly opened a broom closet and began to shut the door when a foot got between the door and the wall.

I knew that I had lost.

I let go of the door handle and kept my eyes peeled on his foot. He was wearing the same black shoes he wore when I first met him. He and I caught our breath then he walked closer to me and my eyes shot up to meet his brown ones. The ones that had taken over my mind.

"Stay back." I warned. His eyebrows shot up.

"So. Blue Eyes." he said leaning against the doorframe.

"What do you want from me?" I asked.

"What every man wants that came tonight. You." he said looking at me, his black crown shimmering in the dark.

"You don't even know me." I said giving him a smirk.

"But I do. Princess." he said walking towards me. "Or do you not remember correctly?" he asked as he stood directly in front of me. I kept my eyes peeled on the floor, refusing to look him in the eye. He grabbed the bottom of my chin and yanked it up to look him in the eye. "Look at me when I'm talking to you." he said in a firm voice.

I yanked my head out of his grasp.

"Damn Grounder. You don't tell me what to do." I said glaring at him. He raised one eyebrow, along with a tug at one corner of his lips.

"Sorry Princess, I thought you knew all about us Grounders." he said pushing me up against a wall.

"Dammit let go of me." I hissed.

"Come on Princess, I know you want to know more. More about me, just like I know about you." he whispered.

"Please, you don't know anything about me." I said shoving myself away from him. I tried not to think about the way his warm hands felt on my hips. Or how his breath felt against my ear. "I have a ball to attend too." I said.

"Of course. I would never keep you away Blue Eyes." he said. His words rang loud and clear. I knew what he meant. He knew what he meant. I turned around and looked him in the eye. We stared at eachother for a long time.

"Tell me, when's the last time you've gotten out of this castle?" he asked.

"The beach." I whispered. He walked towards me, and I looked away. This time he cupped my cheek instead of my chin.

"Why haven't you been out?" he asked.

"I'm not supposed to leave." I say looking back up at him.

"But you're the Princess. You should be able to do what you want." he said cocking his head to the side.

"You guys must run things different on that side of the fence." I say backing up, only for him to keep walking towards me.

"Come on, let me show you the wild side of things. Come with me. Just for a month. You'll still have two more after that to decide on your suitor." he said reaching for me. I shrank away from his touch. He held his hand back.

"I won't touch you. Just friends." he said reaching out his hand. I looked from his eyes, to his hand, back to his eyes. He seemed earnest. Why the hell not. I reached in and gave his hand a firm shake.

"Deal." I said.

"Alright, well I guess we should get back, yeah?" he asked. I nodded my head. We made our way back to the ball and I met several more people. Including John Murphy, Finn Collins, and Lexa. Lexa didn't mention her last name, but she did lick her lips at me which had me a little on edge. Maybe women liking women and men liking men was a common occurrence on the Grounder side of the fence. I danced and laughed, the whole time Bellamy kept his eyes on me which for some reason, made me feel a little safer.

"Hey Clarkey!" Harper sang in my ear as she slung an arm around my shoulders. She had had a bit too much champagne. "There's gonna be a party after this, and all the Grounders will be there. No parents, and real dancing, none of this ball stuff." she whispered in my ear.

"Sure Harper, but I don't know what to wear to that." I said, trying to get her off me.

"Don't worry hun, we'll get ya." Harper said smiling. I smiled and nodded my head at her. Slowly everyone filtered out. All the parents had gone and most of the teens had as well. The Grounders had gone, and eventually I was left to my own devices.

"Well hun, what do you think?" my mother said smiling at me.

"They were all very nice." I said smiling.

"I have agreed to let you go to the Grounder Territory for one month to help you better decide." my father said. I nodded and they both retired to their rooms. I was left in the ball room by myself.

I slunk down into one of the chairs and grabbed a glass of Champagne. I swirled it around in my hand, I didn't drink. However, tonight, I needed it. I sighed and threw the whole glass down my throat.

I was going to that party.

I went up to my room and changed. I had a sparkly pink blouse on that was tight around my bust, I knew that it was revealing but I didn't mind. I slid on a pair of tight skinny jeans pants, and a pair of white converse. I took the pins out of my hair and shook it loose, but left the tiara on. I snuck out the window, and just like that, I was on my way to the party.

When I had arrived, I was in shock. So this is what a teenage party looked like.

Everyone was drinking beer out of bottles, and there were red plastic cups everywhere. There were also clothes all over the place as people stripped. There were people dancing, playing games, eating, outside, and kissing. Lot's of kissing. I had never been kissed. I wouldn't even know what to do, while all these people seemed to have it figured out as their tongues touched.

"Clarke!" Harper screamed and everyone stopped what they were doing as they looked at me.

"Uh. Hi?" I asked. They all smiled and cheered and then continued to do what they were doing. Monty and Jasper were at the bar dishing out alcohol and food, while Wells was on the dancefloor. Maya was playing a game with some other people and Harper pulled me over to her.

"Come on, I have a surprise for you." she said sloshing her drink about. She pulled me up a flight of stairs as I grabbed a cup full of who knows what. I quickly drank it to determine it was moonshine. It tasted like battery acid, but it was definitely moonshine.

"What is it Harper?" I asked as she opened a door filled with faces I barely knew, and one that I did. Bellamy. He was in a dark t-shirt, a faded pair of grey jeans, and had his black crown upon his head. He was sipping on a beer when he saw me. He looked surprised.

"Well, what a surprise." he said smirking.

"Clarke, this is John, Finn, Lexa, Octavia, and Bellamy." Harper slurred as she sat down and rested one of her hands on the shoulder of John. They all smiled at me and I smiled back at them as I sat between Harper and the one named Octavia.

"Hi, I'm Octavia, Bellamy's brother. Don't worry, he's the ass. I'm the nice one." she said with a bright smile. I grinned at her. She was beautiful.

"It's wonderful to meet you." I said.

"Oh my. This one's a virgin. I can just tell." Octavia said drinking more from her cup.

"Oh, well hun maybe this game isn't for you." Lexa said cocking her head to the side.

"What game?" I asked.

"Spin The Bottle. Mixed with Seven Minutes in Heaven." Finn said smirking. I was at a loss.

"Everyone spins the bottle until everyone has a partner, then they go in a room for seven minutes and do whatever they want. Then they come back and report to us. The record is a quickie." Harper said with her eyes wide open. I quickly took a big drink of my alcohol.

"But there is seven of us?" I asked.

"The seventh person has to stay behind. That's the game. You don't wanna be left behind." Octavia said.

"Oh. Okay." I nodded my head.

"Alright. I'll spin first." Octavia started. She got Finn. Then I spun, and I got Lexa which everyone made cheering noises at as she gave me a smirk. Harper then proceeded to get John. Which left Bellamy behind drinking his beer with his nose twitching as he kept his eyes on me.

"Sorry big brother, maybe next time." Octavia said pulling Finn out of the room, and then Lexa grabbed me and pulled me into a random room, I looked over my shoulder to find Bellamy watching me intently.

"Come on hottie, let's go." she said winking at me.

"Hottie?" I asked.

"Come on, your butt is so big, it's hot." she said as she shut the door behind us.

"What?" I was confused.

"Come here." she said as she took her shirt off. She had one of the most impressive racks I had ever seen.

"What?" I repeated. She rolled her eyes and pulled my shirt over my head. I felt my face burn as she grabbed my hips and grinded herself into me. She licked her lips and leant into my ear and whispered.

"We've got seven minutes, take off your pants." she said I slid off my pants and she pushed me down into the bed. She shrugged out of her pants and turned around and bent over for me. "Sit up." she said, her ass was right in my face.

"What?" I asked. She sat on me and began grinding against my body, then she turned around and faced me. She reached one hand down and felt up my boobs, then she trailed one hand down my stomach to the top of my panties.

"Lexa," I began but she hushed me.

"Look, I still have five more minutes." she said. I stayed quiet as she kept groping one of my boobs and rubbing my panties, all while grinding into me. This was the most uncomfortable situation I had ever been in. After the five minutes she kissed me on the cheek and we put our clothes on.

"You done good Princess." she said smiling and we linked arms. I rolled my eyes, maybe this was what friends did on the Grounder side.

We made our way back to the room first to find Bellamy had drank almost three more bottles of beer, and his crown was lopsided. He saw me and stood up.

"We. Will be leaving immediately." he said throwing me over his shoulder.

"Bellamy!" I yelled. My Tiara nearly falling off my head. He thundered down the stairs and passed several people who whooped and hollered at the sight. "Bellamy put me down!" I insisted.

"No! Dammit don't you get it? That bitch!" he yelled as he stumbled around outside. He was definitely a big boy. He had a grip on me and he wasn't going to let go anytime soon.

"I thought we agreed, just friends!" I said.

"So what? You have feelings for her?" He demanded.

"No! It was a stupid game Bellamy!" I yelled at him.

"You have her lipstick on your cheek!" he said stopping completely.

"That's the only place her lips went!" I pronounced, exasperated. He put me down and looked me in the eye, he seemed hurt. His black crown glittered in the moonlight.

"Really?" he asked me, unsure.

"That's the only place anyone's lips have ever been." I said looking down, face burning. I could tell he was taken aback.

"How?" he asked.

"I never, I mean… I've never had a boyfriend, or a crush or anything like that." I whispered, my face red with embarrassment and shame. He cupped my cheek and turned my face to look at him. His eyes were bloodshot but I could tell that he cared.

"Men must throw themselves at you." he said searching my face.

"I guess I haven't met the right one yet." I said shrugging, and turning to walk away.

"Where are you going?" he asked me.

"Back where I need to be." I said and I walked away. I hoped he would follow me, and he did. He stumbled behind me the whole way back to the Castle. I jumped up into my window and he followed.

He placed his Black Crown on my nightstand where I placed mine. He stripped down and fell into my bed in just his boxers.

I rolled my eyes as I undressed and changed into a pair of sleep clothes.

"You know Princess, you've got a nice backside." he said from his spot on the bed. I quickly turned around and covered myself.

"I thought you were asleep." I said mortified.

"Oh no, but the strip show was a nice surprise." he said with a smirk.

"See, this is why people think Grounders are jerks." I said turning around and putting my shirt on. I turned around and got into bed on the other side of the bed. I turned on my side, facing opposite of him and proceeded to go to bed. As I slowly fell asleep I felt myself flip over to find Bellamy staring intently at me.

Had he been staring like that at the back of my head as well?

"You know, I think you're extraordinary. Princess or not." he said.

"Why?" I asked, I could smell the alcohol on his breath, and for all I knew he wouldn't remember this conversation in the morning.

"You're different. You don't take anything from anyone, and yet you're the most innocent person I've met. They definitely are doing something right on this side of the fence. They grew the most beautiful flower out of all the garden." he said, with a small smile on his face. I felt my walls fall completely. He was in. I don't know how he did it. "For this past month, all I could think about were your blue eyes, and the sass in your tone as you walked away from me. I could only hope that we would meet again." he said, his smile falling.

"And would you look at this, we're the royal children of the two civilizations that hate each other most." I whispered. He came closer and brushed the hair out of my face.

"Maybe we could change their opinion though." he said softly. I closed my eyes and felt his hand move from my temple, to the back of my neck, down to my lower back where he began to rub lazy circles in a repetitive motion. For the first time in a long time I felt something. I didn't know what it was, and I wanted to figure out what it was.

"Don't leave." I whispered with my eyes still closed. He stopped rubbing my back. Both his hands grabbed my waist and pulled me against him, and I wrapped my arms around his neck. Our legs intertwined and we stayed like that until we both fell asleep.

I woke up with my body feeling very stiff.

We had stayed in the same position all night. He was still sleeping, and I ran my eyes all over his face. Every curve, dip, bump on his face. He had several freckles, and I counted twenty six in total. He had a softer face when he was asleep, much like that of a child. Not his typical hard and demanding face that he always wore.

I felt intoxicated just by his touch, he was something that I didn't know about but completely understood. I knew this was either going to crash and burn, or it was going to soar. He stirred, and then his eyes. His warm brown eyes opened and poured into mine.

"Morning Princess." he said smiling.

"Morning." I said shyly. I didn't know how to act. I knew after last night there should be no turmoil but at the same time I held true to my word. I had never experienced anything like this.

"How are you feeling?" he asked rubbing his eyes. I stretched out and groaned.

"Meh. I don't wanna get up. But you know how it is." I said as I stretched out all my limbs as far as they would go, then retracting back into the fetal position.

"Yeah. I do." he said, and then silence. I don't think either of us knew what to say, and the air was filled with tension. "I should uh, I should go. We wouldn't want a scandal on our hands now would we?" he said with a small smile.

"Yeah. You're right." I said and with that he got up, collected his things, and was out the window.

Once he was gone, I rolled over to his side of the bed and breathed in his scent. His side of the bed was warmer, and seemed more broken in. I felt my whole body release all tension. It was like everything else that had happened didn't matter in this moment.

Suddenly I heard a knock on the door and I groaned. The door creaked open and I peeked one of my eyes open to discover it was Cynthia. She stood in the doorway and crossed her arms as she gave me a scolding look.

"What?" I asked.

"Mhmm." she hummed as she pursed her lips.

"What Cynthia?" I asked her again.

"You and I both know. I came in here earlier to wake you to see what you wanted packed. Only to discover not one royal child in this room, but two." she said, widening her eyes.

"What?" I repeated for the third time, only this time my voice cracked.

"Child who else would have a black crown? It sure wasn't Monty." Cynthia said. I groaned and covered my head with the blanket. "I don't want to know what happened last night, I just want to make sure you're okay." she said. It was getting hot under the blankets and I knew she wouldn't leave until I had answered her.

"I'm alright Cynthia." I said as I threw the blankets off my head.

"You care for him, don't you?" she asked leaning against the door frame.

"I don't know yet. He gives me feelings I haven't felt towards anyone before. They're so strong. I don't know which direction they're leading me yet." I said fidgeting with my nails.

"Well, you have a month to decipher whether or not they're good Sunshine. Let's get a move on, I already packed your bags and you will be leaving soon." Cynthia said as she walked out of the room. I groaned and threw the blankets over my head again. I knew this would end in love or war. And we all know everything is fair in each of those.

These games were dangerous.

Thats what they were. Games. I felt my senses come back to me again. I was a pawn. I was a strategic maneuver in political ground standing. I had to remind myself what my purpose was. I needed to remind myself that I was not a pawn, and I could not fall for Bellamy Blake.

At any cost.

* * *

 **Well, what do you guys think? Is she going to fall for him, or is our Clarke gonna play the game? I mean, I already know, but I want to know what you guys are thinking!**


	3. The Start

**Here is Chapter Three! Let me know what you think! xoxo**

* * *

"First you're up and you're down, and then in between. I really want to know what do you mean?" ~ What Do U Mean (Justin Bieber)

 **Clarke POV:**

I spent the rest of the day preparing for my exit.

Around three, I had left my family, friends and Cynthia behind. They all had given me things to remind me of them as I would be gone for the next four weeks.

The journey there was much longer than I had remembered, or maybe I was just anticipating to arrive. Last time I was in no rush, and this time I was.

I wanted to discover The Grounder side of life. What their civilization looked like. I would be the first Arkian to travel onto that side of the fence in a century. I buzzed off the idea. When I arrived at the fence, I saw two Grounder guards waiting patiently.

"Uh, hello." I said peering through the window. They stared at me for a second, whispered to each other, and then proceeded to open a gate. I gave them a tight smile and adjusted the tiara upon my head. I guess the turmoil between our people was still strong, no matter what Bellamy and I had done.

I clenched my jaw and slowly crept through the wooded area. There was a winding path that seemed to go in circles, but I kept to it, until I saw the first sign of civilization. There was a slight trail of smoke puffing up from over a hill. I assumed they lived in a valley, so I pushed on the gas a little harder and slowly I traveled up the hill. Once I reached the top I saw a kingdom.

I felt my breath catch. There were log cabins of all sizes, hundreds of them. Sitting at the end of all the houses was a castle. An old fashioned brick castle, that I had read about in the Victorian era.

I felt my breath hitch as I traveled in through the village, I couldn't help my wandering eyes, I was entranced.

There were children all over, and animals. I believe they were dogs, siblings of the wolves. There were also big horses, they seemed majestic.

People stopped what they were doing and watched me pass through. I swallowed my pride and avoided their watchful eyes.

It seemed so colorful here, the people wore different clothing articles than what Arkians wore. They had boots on their feet and all seemed to wear the hats of cowboys. Even the women.

Eventually I made my way to the castle and I stopped at the gate for a few minutes. I didn't know what to do, so I just sat there. Until the gate opened, and I continued on my way into the castle. I stopped off the side of the road and got out of the vehicle.

I stood there for a while, and simply took in the beauty of the ancient era. It seemed as if the history book was brought to life before me.

That was all I did know, facts. History, mathematics, sciences, and language. Nothing more.

Suddenly an elderly woman walked out of the castle with a smile on her face. I smiled back at her and shut my car door.

"Hello young Princess." she said as she reached me. She had brown hair that was turning grey, she was already starting to gain wrinkles along her forehead and cheeks. She did however have more lines lingering along the corners of her eyes and lips, proving that she had smiled and laughed much of her life.

"Please, just call me Clarke." I said taking her outreached hand. She as well had small slender fingers, much like Cynthia.

"My name is Ella, but the Blake siblings call me Babushka, or Bushka for short." she said with a smile as I shook her hand.

"I am so pleased to meet you." I said with a genuine smile, one that shone. I was so happy to know that there would be at least one smiling face for me, and I tried not to think of Cynthia and how much I already missed her.

"Well dearie, let me show you around." she said turning around and leading me throughout the Grounder castle. "The Blake siblings apologize, but they are unable to be here at the moment, as they do have duties to attend to today." she said as she marched through the castle. It was nothing like my own.

The floors were a tan marble, and the walls a deep rich color. There were paintings all over the halls, and everything was so beautifully elegant.

Nothing like that of Arkia. There, it was modern. White. Empty.

The Grounder castle had long red drapes against that of tall extending windows that looked over the civilization. As I looked over the society as a whole it made me smile a bit. I could see the countryside, as well as the woods. I could see little people making their way through their neighborhoods, and it made me realize that this was definitely a different side of the fence.

Ella showed me the castle in its entirety, and at the end of the tour, she showed me my room. It was in an enclosed tower, away from everyone else. She said it was so I could have my own space. As she opened my room I had discovered that all my things had been moved into the room already.

"Ella?" I asked.

"Yes dearie?" she asked.

"How did all my things arrive?" I asked as I saw a painting that I had been working on was set up on an easel, and several of my trinkets were around the room, on a vanity, a nightstand, a chest and so forth.

"Oh it must have been the gophers." she said smiling and shaking her head.

"Gophers?" I asked confused.

"Bellamy and Octavia have little admirers. They come by the castle often to help with daily tasks, and twice a week, they each run an activity for them." Ella explained waving her hand in dismissal.

"Where would I find these gophers? I wish to thank them." I said smiling. It was the most adorable thing I had heard in months. I wish I had admirers, but then again, I never went out. I suppose that was a normal thing for them to do here. Go out and see their people. Only my mother and father were allowed out to see the people, I on the other hand, was forced to stay inside and grow my intellect before I became Queen.

Ella gave me a grin.

"I bet they would love to meet you, they were so excited to hear that you were coming." she said as she bounced along down the steps. I smiled and followed her. So the whole civilization knew. I followed Ella's quick footsteps, for an elderly woman, she sure knew how to maneuver quickly throughout this castle.

"Prince Bellamy had this room re-furnished for the gophers to spend their time in. Every night he stops by and says hello to whomsoever may be in the room." she explained.

I swallowed and forced a smile. It was hard to hate someone who was kind to children.

Ella swung open the door to complete chaos. There was about ten children running about the room.

"Oh my." she said as one of them threw a plastic cup across the room, and three more ran to catch it. They seemed to have made a game about it. Ella cleared her throat and glared into the room. They all stopped what they were doing immediately, and it was dead silent. I could hear the plastic cup drop and roll across the floor. I gave a slight laugh at the sight. They all looked guilty.

" _What_ have I told you children about roughhousing in the room?" Ella said pursing her lips, and squinting her eyes at them.

"Sorry Bushka" was chorused among the small children. The youngest seemed to be only four, teetering along with the big kids. Ella shook her head and smoothed over her dress.

"I have a guest here for you." she said giving them all a pointed look that I knew meant that they were to play nice. All their eyes switched over to me. "This, is Princess Clarke Griffin, of Arkia." she said with a smile. I smiled at all of them and waved to them. They all grinned and walked over to me.

"Hello!" they all said, and before I knew it, they were all telling me their names, and I tried my very best to remember things about all of them. How a boy named Darren had glasses, and a girl named Arabella had vibrant red hair. The oldest one of all was a boy, his name was Hunter.

"Will you play with us?" the youngest said gripping onto my leg, looking up at me with a smile. She was missing a few teeth and had her hair up in two ponytails. I smiled and nodded my head.

"Of course I will." I said smiling. Ella said her goodbyes and I was left with the children. They had us play hide and go seek, and I was often found, or the one that would seek. They had me color with them, but when one of them asked me to read a book I was confused.

"Why would you want me to read you a book?" I asked. They all widened their eyes and ran to a shelf on one side of the wall that was filled to the brim with small slender books. None like the thick ones I read from everyday.

"I like this one!" one of the boys yelled as he swung it up above his head.

"No! No! This one!" a girl pronounced. They eventually all had stacks and were sitting on the floor in anticipation. I sat down on a chair and looked at them questioningly.

"What? Haven't you ever seen a fairytale before?" Hunter asked. I shook my head no.

"I like this one." the youngest, Jerica, said with a lisp. I picked up the book from her pudgy fingers and looked at the cover. It had a picture of a princess and prince, dancing. It was titled 'Cinderella'.

"What on earth is this?" I mumbled to myself. I opened the book, I had never seen such a thing. Pictures in a book, that was filled with not facts, but a story. As I read the book I slowly started to see the purpose for these things.

Entertainment.

I smiled at their faces as I showed them the pictures and read about how a girl named Cinderella, turned from rags to riches as she and a prince fell in love.

"Prince Charming is so dreamy." one girl said sighing as I showed a picture of them at a ball.

"Liza that's yucky." one boy said sticking out his tongue in disgust.

"Yeah, boys have cooties." another girl said. Pretty soon they all broke out into an argument over which gender had the cooties. I wasn't sure what it was, but I was pretty sure it wasn't a good thing. I sat there with my mouth open a bit and my eyes widened as I watched them begin to get physical.

"Hey now." I said sternly and they all stopped and stared at me.

"Come now." I said motioning them closer.

"Do you have cooties Princess Clarke?" one of the boys asked me with wide eyes. I bubbled with laughter and pulled Jerica to my lap and motioned them to sit back down.

"No, I don't have cooties." I said smiling.

Jerica touched my tiara and quickly removed her fingers.

"You are beautiful Princess." she breathed into my face. I smiled at her and removed my tiara from my head.

"You, are a beautiful Princess." I said placing it on her head. She grinned and turned to her friends who looked at me in disbelief. Pretty soon all the girls wanted to be a Princess for a few minutes, and I smiled and let them all have a turn.

"Yes, very beautiful Princesses." was said, and I looked up to find Bellamy leaning against the doorframe with a small smile. He was in a long sleeve dark checkered shirt that was tucked into a pair of grey jeans. He had his black crown upon his head.

"Prince Bellamy!" all the kids screeched and ran to him, trying to jump on him and hugging him. He laughed and swung one of the girls around in a circle and ruffled the head of a boy.

"Well, what do we have here?" he said as he picked up Jerica, who was still in my tiara.

"Princess Clarke called me a beautiful Princess!" she shrieked. Bellamy smiled at her and removed my tiara from upon her head.

"Yes, you all are beautiful." he said looking over at where I was sitting. His dark eyes looked me over, and I felt my face burn.

Remembering what he said the night before had me burning.

He placed Jerica down and walked over to me. I stood up and cleared my throat. He placed my crown on top of my head and looked down at me.

He was much bigger than me, it was a normal Grounder thing to be large, but he was huge. His muscles had been tight throughout his shirt, and he stood a good foot over my head.

He cupped my chin again and forced me to lock eyes with him again.

"Very beautiful." he said softly. All the kids giggled and we both glanced over to them and smiled. We turned towards him to find them trying to stifle their giggles.

"Prince Bellamy! Girls have cooties!" Hunter said sticking his tongue out.

"Not Princesses Hunter, and it seems this room is filled with them." he said sternly with a smile.

"Yuck." Darren yelled and soon it was madness again. I laughed as one of the boys yelled and ran from a girl.

"Oh my." Bellamy said watching.

"Kids, come now." I said, and they all calmed down. "Why don't you tell Prince Bellamy what we did today?" I said trying to redirect their attention.

"We hid and Princess found us!"

"And we colored!"

"And she read stories!"

"She never read a story before!" Jerica said waddling up to me and gesturing that she wanted to be held. I picked her up and she smiled. She looked at Bellamy with wide eyes. "She read Cinderella, for the first time." she whispered. Bellamy smiled but looked at me quizzically.

"Is that so?" he asked. I nodded my head with a small smile. "Well, what do you think?" he asked me.

"It's beautiful. All the stories are. Just one problem though." I said putting Jerica down.

"The Princess always falls for the Prince, but even Princes have cooties!" I yelled and ran away from Bellamy causing massive chaos of all the boys chasing the girls, with the girls screaming and running away from them. I laughed as Bellamy jumped over a chair and tried to reach me. I laughed and turned around the corner, gathering as many girls as I could. Soon Bellamy caught up to me though and locked me into his arms. I burst out laughing and turned into him as the girls kept running.

"That may be true Princess, but as you said, the Princess always falls for the Prince." he said smiling and breathing heavily. I felt my laughter slow and before I knew it we were standing there, in each others embrace. It was dead silent. I was looking up into his eyes, and he seemed to turn his head to the side a little, almost as if he was about to- "Are you gonna kiss?" one of the kids asked. I smiled and looked over to find them all looking at us with cocked heads and smiles.

"No. Never." I said with crazy eyes, and ran after them, causing them all to scream and run away from me. Bellamy laughed and watched me chase after them, tickling them when I caught them.

Soon the door swung open again, only this time it was Octavia. She looked exhausted and all the kids switched gears and screamed and ran to her. She gave a tired smile and patted them all on the head as she moved to me and Bellamy.

"Hello Princess," she said walking over to me, opening her arms.

"Hello Princess." I said as well, as I hugged her. She gave a small laugh and looked at me with happy eyes, despite the tired look upon her face.

"I am so glad to see you here." she said looking back and forth between her brother and I. She also had a tiara upon her head, only hers was black to match her brothers, and was a bit smaller than mine.

"I'm glad to be here. I came to thank the gophers for moving me into my room." I said smiling at all their faces.

"Princess Octavia, we like Princess Clarke." one of the kids said as they pulled on her pant leg. She smiled at the child and patted their head.

"We all do hun." she said.

"Are you gonna stay here?" Arabella asked me. I looked from their faces to the Blake siblings, back to them.

"I'm going to stay for a long while, but then I will have to return to my home eventually." I said smiling.

"Do you miss your home?" one of them asked, and soon they all sat down and looked at me expectantly. I sighed.

"A bit, I miss my best friends, and my caregiver, her name is Cynthia." I said with a sad smile.

"I'd miss my kitty."

"Do you have a kitty?" they asked. I smiled at them.

"No, but I would love to meet yours." I said. Soon all the children had to leave, and Octavia showed them the way out for their parents. I was left alone with Bellamy. Once more.

"I'm glad you made it here safely." he said gruffly.

"Thank you." I said raising my chin a little higher.

"I'm assuming you met Ella?" he said straightening his posture and puffing out his chest a little bit.

"Yes, I have. She is very kind." I said softly.

"Yes, she is the main caregiver around here, if you need anything you can go to her." he said stiffly. "Feel free to roam about wherever you please, you will have granted access to anything you wish." he said blankly and then proceeded to leave the room.

I huffed.

He couldn't decide what character to play. Frankly, it was becoming irritating. I straightened my tiara and left the room. I walked about the castle, it was strange to be able to go wherever I wanted. I didn't know where to begin.

My stomach gave a small growl, and I shrugged. I went with that. I walked about the castle until I heard a continuous ruckus of plates, and utensils banging up against things. I assumed this was the kitchen.

I curiously opened to door to find three people working very quickly on something. I stepped in and watched them, they were speaking another language.

There were two men and one women. I was entranced in watching them work. It was like art. Suddenly one of the men noticed my presence.

"What do we have here?" he asked, the accent was one I was unsure of.

"It seemed we have a stray Princess looking for a nibble?" the woman said with a smile.

"Come, come, sit." the man said as the second one pulled up a stool for me next to a counter.

"What are you in the mood for madam? Tonight we were going to make pasta for you." the second man said with a smile. I grinned.

"Anything you have made would be absolutely wonderful." I said shyly.

"Aww, look at this cheeky little pup. She is so cute. My dear, we must feed you immediately." the woman said whipping her head around to the men in the kitchen.

"Let's work." she declared and they went back to frantically running around. I smiled as they seemed to have been putting on a show for me. Soon enough I was eating the most delicious pasta with a meat sauce, along with several handmade breadsticks.

"This is delicious." I said around a mouth full of food. I soon learned that the three cooks were named Joelle, Costas, and Remy.

"Thank you my dear, you eat like a true woman should." Costas said with a smile as he gave me a glass of ice water. I smiled sheepishly, but didn't apologize. It was the best food I had ever eaten. Everything in Arkia tasted the same, and it had no scent like this. It was beautiful. Suddenly Bellamy burst into the kitchen looking worried.

"What, are you doing in here?" he asked me, with his eyes narrowed.

"Um, eating." I said gesturing to my plate.

"Dinner, is served at seven o'clock around here." he said sharply.

"I'm sorry, my stomach isn't on your timetable yet." I snapped back.

Joelle, Costas, and Remy quickly busied themselves with the dishes, leaving us alone once more.

"What are you eating?" he asked picking up my plate.

"Hey." I snapped taking it back.

"A Princess should not eat that whole thing." he said looking at me with disgust.

"Sorry, but heads up," I said standing up. "I may be a damn Princess, but I do not follow your rules of how to be one." I said sharply, standing my ground. He stared directly at me. I narrowed my eyes at him and he backed away.

"See where that gets you." he said, and exited the room. Once the door was slammed shut behind him I felt myself breathe, and I didn't want to eat anymore.

Remy came back into the kitchen and sat next to me.

"Don't worry cherie. He hasn't met anyone like you yet. He doesn't know what to do." he said taking his hands into mine.

"Thank you Remy, for everything. I should probably retire to my room now as I have upset Prince Bellamy." I said sadly. I smiled at him and squeezed his hands. "Tell Joelle and Costas that I thank them graciously." I said with a serious look in my eyes.

"Of course, anything for you madam." he said with a smile. I stood up and went back to my tower. This did not seem like something that I was meant to do. I didn't want to play this part anymore. I had to remind myself that I only had to stay here for a few more weeks. Then I could go home, and convince my parents that the Grounders are still not to be trusted. I felt so stupid to once more be fooled that Bellamy would be nice to me. He was only that way for show, around the kids.

I sighed and decided I was allowed to do what I wanted. I left my tower, and then exited the castle.

I decided I would explore this place on my own.

I walked along the path that led throughout the civilization, and I smiled. Everyone here was talking, laughing and singing. They all moved with power, and had purpose. While everyone at Arkia kept to themselves, and walked with Grace.

I watched as the kids played in the street, and I saw another dog run past, following the kids. They were much bigger up close I soon realized, I cocked my head as I watched one of the kids rub it's stomach. Was that something that was meant as praise or punishment? I furrowed my brows, but soon came to the conclusion that it was praise as when the child stopped, the dog licked the child on the face. The child screamed with delight and laughter as it hugged the face of the dog. I smiled and continued on my way.

People here seemed to just be filled with passion. They all talked loudly, and seemed to have something to say.

I saw a few people riding on horses, and I quickly moved to the side of the path and watched in wonderment as they laughed and rocked back and forth upon the big animals.

Soon I was walking back to the castle, and a few people had even smiled at me. I didn't know what to do, so I simply smiled back at them.

Eventually I had made my way back to the castle, just as dark was starting to arrive. I walked into the castle, and as I shut the door I heard yelling voices. Prince Bellamy was one of the voices. The other one was a different man.

I quietly tip toed closer to the voices. I peeked around the corner to find Octavia leaning up against a door, eyes shut and concentrating. I was taken aback at this. She opened her eyes wide and gestured for me to be quiet. She then gestured me closer. I tip toed over to her and leaned my ear against the door as well.

"What do you want me to do?" Bellamy asked.

"I want you to win her over." the voice yelled.

"What the hell, I'm allowed to pick and choose who I fall in love with. Maybe I do want to love her, but it won't be on account of you forcing me to." Bellamy snapped. I felt my breath hitch.

"You will do what I say son. You must get the Princess of Arkia to fall for you, this is our opportunity. She only has so much time here. When this month is over, she could go home and this opportunity to bond our civilizations could pass so quickly, and we would have to wait yet another generation." the King said. The King. The King was forcing Bellamy to fall in love with me. Had this whole thing been a masquerade?

"I'm going to do what I damn please. I am the Prince." Bellamy roared at his father.

"And I am the King." his father yelled right back. "I know you already have feelings for the girl. I'm not stupid. I know where you were last night." the King said, his voice slowly turning devilish. "Tell me. Did you get inside her?" he asked with a menacing tone.

"It wasn't like that." Bellamy said weakly.

"Please. Son. I know how you work. You want to get her." the King said, and suddenly there was a sound of skin on skin and Octavia and I jumped at the sound.

She quickly gestured for me to follow her. We ran into her room and we both were breathing at an unusual pace.

"You have to understand. He would never-" Octavia began, but I put one of my hands up to silence her.

"I know." I said. That must have been why he was so moody.

"He may be unstable sometimes, but you should have seen the way he was looking at you today. That's something he would never be able to fake. I don't know what happened last night, and frankly I'm too scared to ask. However, I know that if it's Bellamy, he means it." she said standing up straight, adjusting her tiara.

"What do you mean?" I asked her.

"For a while now, he hasn't been interested in spending time with anyone. He's been so damn lost in the woods, and yesterday, and today. He seems to have lit up again. He never had had interest in a girl, ever. He's been admired for years, sure, but he's never admired anyone back." she said softly.

"I don't know what to do Octavia." I said softly.

"I don't know what to tell you either, because quite frankly honey, you've got two whole civilizations counting on your answer." she said shrugging her shoulders. I knew she was right. And I knew that she wouldn't lie to me about this, I could tell my the look in her eyes.

"Tell me more." I said standing up. She smiled and we sat on her bed, and she began to tell me story after story that she could remember about Bellamy. I smiled and laughed at these memories.

"Our mother, she died after giving birth to me, and then Ella became our closest thing to a mother. Bellamy respects her so much, and I know that he would do absolutely anything for her." she said at one point. My mind drifted back to Cynthia.

"I have someone like that at home too." I said with a small smile.

"Are you going to be okay, staying here for the next few weeks?" she asked me with a questioning look on her face. I sighed and nodded my head.

"I just don't know what I'll be doing." I said.

"That's easy. You'll make new friends, you'll go exploring, and we'll show you this side of the fence." she said with a grin. I smiled back at her and nodded my head. Suddenly we heard a soft knock on the door.

"Come in." Octavia said hesitantly, locking eyes with me. Her long brown hair swished from side to side gesturing me, that I wasn't to tell what we were discussing. Bellamy entered the room and smiled at both of us.

"I'm glad to see you have found a friend." he said to the room in general, neither of us nodded because we weren't sure who he was speaking too.

"I'm going to bed. Goodnight to the both of you." he said blankly, then exited the room.

"Is he always like that?" I asked quietly. Octavia nodded her head.

"He almost never shows emotion. When he does, he's usually mad. No one knows what he gets so mad about all the time though." she said shrugging. I sighed and bid her goodnight. As I exited my room I saw Bellamy was waiting for me outside in the hallway.

"Well Princess, how was your first day here?" he asked.

"Different." I said standing a little taller.

"That's an interesting adjective you choose to use." he said smiling.

"Well, I find it a sufficient word in this case." I said crossing my arms. He smiled.

"So the Princess has never read a storybook?" he asked looking down at his feet.

"No, I have not." I said.

"Why not?" he asked curiously.

"To be honest, I'm not quite sure. I guess I've never had them before." I said furrowing my brows.

"Interesting." he said crossing his arms.

"Yes well, alot of things about this place are interesting." I said also crossing my arms.

"Have you ever read poetry? Playwrights? Novels?" he asks me furrowing his brow.

"I couldn't even tell you what those are." I said softly. He walked towards me and slowly slid one hand down my arm, and then enclosed his large hand around my small one.

"I have something to show you." he said softly. I nodded my head, and he led me down the hallway and around the corner. He opened up a large door and inside was a huge, beautiful room. It had books lining every wall, with ladders and chairs everywhere.

"This is the royal library. It has every book ever written inside it." he said smiling. I walked in and let myself be entranced by this for a minute.

"Pick any you would like to read." he said with a smile.

Soon enough I was darting throughout the whole room gathering book after book that I had never read, nor heard of. Soon enough I had a stack of at least twenty and walked back to him. He laughed, and I just smiled sheepishly at him.

"This is exciting for me." I said shrugging. He shook his head and grabbed half my stack. We walked back to my tower together and he helped me place them around my room. I smiled at him.

"Thank you." I said genuinely. He nodded his head.

"I am sorry about earlier." he said looking at the ground. I felt myself be taken aback.

"It's nothing." I said.

"No. It was rude of me. I should never tell you who to be or what to do." he said looking at me seriously. I gulped and looked at my feet, rather than the way he was staring at me.

"Forgive me?" he asked me softly. I looked up at him, and he looked genuinely apologetic.

"Yes. I forgive you." I said quietly. He smiled.

"Tomorrow, I would like to show you around more. I would like to do things with you." he said standing up straighter.

"Yes, I would like that." I said smiling.

"Well, goodnight then." he said promptly and left me to be.

I sighed and changed out of my clothes, and into sleeping clothes. I slid into my bed and opened a book, which was filled with poetry. It was beautiful. I fell asleep with the words in my head, and my heart in my hands.

Unsure of what to do with either.


	4. The Grounds People

"My mind forgets to remind me: You're A Bad Idea." ~ Sparks Fly (Taylor Swift)

 **Clarke POV:**

The next morning I awoke early. I changed into a pair of clothes and walked down to the kitchen to find something for breakfast. I found Octavia eating a piece of toast and sipping from a glass.

"Good morning Princess." Costas said with a smile as he continued to make something that smelt like pancakes, and some sort of meat.

"Good morning Costas, please, call me Clarke though." I said and sat down next to Octavia.

"How you doing?" she asked me, eying me up.

"I'm good. Really." I said assuring her. She shrugged and a plate of fruit was placed in front of me. I looked up and saw Joelle wink at me before she continued to cook breakfast. I smiled and began to eat some berries.

"So I assume there isn't a strict time for breakfast?" I asked. Octavia shook her head and gave me a strange look.

"There isn't a strict time for any meals." she said wrinkling her nose. I felt strange. Why on earth did Bellamy yell at me yesterday then?

"Princess Clarke!" Ella exclaimed, bursting into the room.

"Ella, it's just Clarke." I said with a smile. She gave me a quick smile then continued.

"Prince Bellamy has requested you meet him in the barns at once." she said with a nod of her head.

I smiled at Octavia, grabbed an apple, and waved goodbye to everyone in the kitchen. They wished me luck, and I was off to the barns.

I bit into my apple, and the juices fell down my chin. I smiled and wiped it from my face. I giggled a little and put a bit more pep in my step.

I walked out of the castle to find the sun shining. I smiled and stopped for a minute as I felt it on my face. I wanted to feel it on my face every morning.

I kept on my way down the winding path that was littered with different plants. There were flowers, bushes, and even little trees.

I hadn't been behind the castle yet, and I took note of how beautiful the grounds were. Someone must have gone through a lot of trouble for it to look this beautiful I thought to myself. I wouldn't know anything about landscaping.

Soon my walk ended and I arrived at the royal barns.

Bellamy was leaning against the barn door waiting for, and watching me. I smiled at him, and he gave me a smile back, a genuine one.

This morning he was clad in another pair of jeans, and an old t-shirt. I didn't think he owned these things. He also had those boots on again.

"Good morning Princess." he said smiling.

"Good morning Prince." I said in return.

"How did you sleep?" he asked, furrowing his brow and pushing himself off the door.

"Fine, thank you." I said, and he turned around and walked into the barn. I quickly followed him, not wanting to be left behind.

"So, what are we doing today?" I asked him. He turned sharply, and then down a row of stables. There were at least eight on each side of the row.

"Well, how do you feel about horses?" he asked with a smirk, and a twinkle in his eyes.

"What?" I asked, suddenly not feeling very confident in myself.

"This," he said opening a stable door. "Is Jacks." he said. In the stable was a beautiful horse. He was huge. He had pale brown fur and long cream mane. He trotted up to Bellamy and nuzzled his neck. I smiled and watched Bellamy interact with the creature. It was like something out of one of the story books I would read to the Gophers.

"You wanna pet him?" Bellamy said looking over at me. I smiled and nodded my head. Bellamy walked over to me, and the horse followed. I looked up, the horses nose was almost eye level to me. I felt him breathe and I knew for a fact that I was going to love horses.

I felt locked in place, and moved on co-pilot. I reached up and slowly ran my fingers up and down the side of his face. I felt Bellamy's eyes on me. I moved around to the side of Jacks and slowly ran my fingers around on his body. He was a very muscled creature. I seemed to be in a trance.

"Well." Bellamy said breaking the silence. "How about we take him for a ride?" he said leaning up against him with a smile. I nodded my head with a grin. I sat on a bench, and watched as Bellamy hooked something up to Jacks, it looked like some sort of seat. He occasionally would glance over at me, but he would quickly look away as soon as our eyes made contact.

"Well," he said gruffly. I quickly stood. "This is called a saddle." he said gesturing to the thing he put on the horse. "These are the stirrups, and these are the reins." he said showing me the other parts. "You probably shouldn't ride on your own the first time, so you can ride with me." he said. I nodded my head.

He stepped into the thing called a stirrup and swung one leg over the saddle. I looked at his boot, so that's why they wore those kinds of shoes. For the horses.

He reached his hand down to me, I took it, and he pulled me up. I sat in front of him, and I wasn't going to lie, it was slightly uncomfortable.

He reached around my sides, and tried to avoid touching me, I could tell he was trying. He grabbed the reins and gave the horse a little kick in the side and the horse lurched forward, causing me to sway forward and back into Bellamy. I quickly leaned forward, only to discover that you needed to rock back and forth with the horse.

"Hold on." he said, I didn't know what to hold onto, so I simply gripped onto a horn like structure on the front of the saddle. We trotted out of the barns and down a trail. We went through the woods, and it was something I had never seen before.

This view changed everything.

There were little creatures running all about, and I gave a little laugh at a squirrel who scurried up a tree.

The trail led us out of the forest and into a town. I smiled and watched from upon the horse as people fled the trail and watched as Prince Bellamy and I slowly made our way through the town. People stopped what they were doing and smiled at us, well, I'm sure their smiles were for Bellamy. A few waved, and a few more even bowed.

The children however that knew me screamed my name and waved frantically. I laughed and smiled. I waved back towards them and they all jumped up and down at our presence.

"They really seem to like you." Bellamy whispered in my ear. His breath tickled my ear, and I tried not to cringe away from him.

"Well, I've really grown to care for them." I said sitting up a little straighter.

"I have a few stops to make before we return home to the castle." he said, and with that I returned my attention back to the path. Soon I started to recognize faces, and remember faces.

Bellamy slowed the horse and turned off of the path to a fairly large building. The horse soon came to a stop and Bellamy jumped down. I however stayed sat upon the horse. I didn't know if I was supposed to come with or not, and I certainly didn't want to intrude. Bellamy tied the horses reins to a wooden post.

"You coming Princess?" he asked offering me his hand. I took it once more and slowly slid off Jacks.

"Where are we?" I asked as I patted Jacks on what appeared to be his shoulder.

"An old buddy of mine." he said, and led me into the building. I looked around to see all sorts of technology. I was a bit taken aback. I had no clue that this was where they would store their weaponry. In an average looking building. I suppose that no one would consider looking here, it was a good coverup.

"Dammit Raven, what do you want me to do?" a large male voice said. I quickly side stepped closer to Bellamy, and accidently bumped his shoulder. We both jumped at the contact, and I felt my face burn. I looked at the floor, while he looked at me.

"Wick, shut up and make it realistic." The woman, I assume Raven, yelled back. Soon the woman came into view, she was gorgeous as well, all the women here seemed to be. She had dark hair, longer than Maya's, but not as long as Octavia's. She was in a red jacket, and had a different kind of boot on her feet. Her hair was pulled up, and she had smudges on her face, shirt, and jeans. "Bellamy, what a surprise." she said quickly smiling.

"Hello Raven." he said with a knowing smirk.

"Wick! Get in here!" Raven yelled and quickly turned back to us with a smile. "I'm so happy to see you." she said smiling at me. "I'm Raven Reyes." she said reaching out her hand.

"I'm Clarke." I said smiling and take her hand. It was so refreshing to meet someone like her.

"How long have you guys been in here?" she asked with a forced smile.

"Only long enough to know that my favorite mechanic, and favorite engineer still are deeply in love." Bellamy said smiling as the one named Wick entered our presence.

"Bellamy! What's good man?" Wick said as the two hugged, they seemed to share a bond. A close one.

"I was just showing Clarke how to ride, and I decided to get her a bow." he said looking back and forth between Wick and Raven.

"Well, we have plenty of those here." Raven said gesturing to me to follow her. She started walking, and I looked back at Bellamy. He nodded me on, and I decided it was safe to follow her. I walked behind her as she droned on and on about types of bows.

"Um, excuse me." I said as I caught up to her.

"Hmm?" she said as she opened one of the many doors in this building.

"What is a bow?" I asked. She looked me dead in the eye, and seemed to be reading me.

"Well damn. You don't even know what a bow is? That Bellamy." she said shaking her head.

"Come on, I'll show you." she said smiling and linking one of her arms through mine. We walked together into a room, and I soon discovered what a bow was. It was a weapon.

"Now, you're pretty petite, so we'll start you off light." she said handing me a bow that seemed to be a tad smaller than the rest. "So Clarke, what do you think of it here so far?" she asked as she seemed to fumble around in a drawer for something.

"It's different. I like it here." I said smiling.

"What about the Prince?" she said as she seemed to dig deeper and deeper.

"He's… different." I said trying to avoid this conversation. "What are you looking for?" I asked her.

"These." she said pulling up a bundle of arrows.

"These, are custom made." she said looking at me very seriously. As she handed them to me, I soon discovered there were quite a lot of them. They had little tints of blue designs around them.

I never thought a weapon could be beautiful.

"Be careful with them. Don't use them, unless there is an absolute emergency." she said looking at me sternly. I nodded my head, and she unfurrowed her eyebrows, I never knew how stern someone could look until I met this woman. She may have been tiny, but she certainly had a fire burning in her. I respected that.

She continued to talk to me on the way back to the place where I assumed Bellamy and Wick were. I looked around and soon discovered that all we thought of the Grounder Army was wrong. They weren't behind us in the slightest, if anything they were almost ahead of us technologically. We walked back to Bellamy and Wick, and I saw in Wick's eyes that he was in love with Raven, it made me smile.

"Did you find what you needed?" Bellamy asked with a soft smile. I nodded my head and turned to smile at Raven.

"Thank you." I said seriously. She pulled me to her, and before I knew it we were hugging. I gripped to her tight. If this was what friendship was like on this side of the fence, I wanted more.

"You come back soon okay? I get suffocated with this dummy all day." Raven said into my ear. I laughed and nodded my head. We let go and turned to the men.

"Well, we should get going. We have to meet Lincoln." Bellamy said taking the bow from Raven's hands.

"It was nice to meet you." I said to Wick, who looked taken aback.

"As well as you Princess." he said smiling.

"Please, just Clarke." I said grinning at them. Bellamy took my elbow and softly yanked on it.

"You come back now, you hear?" Wick said. I smiled at him, and with one foot out the door, they were bickering again. I smiled.

"Are they always like that?" I asked Bellamy. He nodded his head.

"They may argue a lot, but they do love each other. They are also the best weapon masters on this side of the fence." Bellamy said as he attached the bow to some sort of hook on the side of Jacks. He then put the bows inside of a pocket, and before I knew it we were back up on the horse and venturing on.

I was feeling more comfortable now, and I felt my body slack a little. As Bellamy reached for the reins, he touched the side of my body and I jerked away and felt my face burn. I should have been sitting up straighter. My pudge was sticking out over the sides of my jeans.

I had something that Harper told me was called a muffin. I didn't know why they called it that, but I knew it wasn't good. She would often point out the larger girls and called them a 'muffin'. I felt my face burn brighter. I didn't want him to think I was a muffin. He coughed and moved his arms away from my body. Oh god, he did think I was a muffin. I blinked away tears that were quickly forming and told myself I was being ridiculous.

A Princess does not cry.

I sat up straight, and shook myself out of that sort of mind. I was a Princess. If anyone had a problem with my body they could kiss my ass.

The whole trot to this Lincoln's house was quiet, and we quickly arrived. Bellamy did the same with Jacks as he did at Raven and Wicks. He tied his reins to a wooden post and soon we were in what appeared to be a training room. I saw several men and women from young to old fighting.

"This, is where we train our soldiers. Our Commander is of course me, but Lincoln is second in Command, which means he takes over a lot for me when I have other duties to attend to." Bellamy whispered in my ear. I swallowed and nodded my head, still a bit embarrassed from earlier.

"Come, I'll introduce you." he said gesturing for me to follow him. We walked into a room to find a shirtless man beating on a bag hanging from the ceiling.

"Take it easy there killer." Bellamy said as the man kicked the thing off of it's chain.

"Like you should talk there ripper." the man said catching his breath and smiling. He had tattoos all over his body, I wondered if Bellamy had tattoos over his. I know I had seen him shirtless once, but it was after a few drinks, and I wasn't really paying attention.

"Lincoln, this is Clarke." he said gesturing to me. The man nodded at me and smiled.

"I would offer you my hand or a hug, but I am quite sweaty your highness." he said smiling. He had a kind smile, but dark eyes. The kind that smiled at you, but always were on alert.

"Please, just call me Clarke." I said smiling at him.

"What can I do for you today?" Lincoln asked as he grabbed a towel and patted his body down.

"Well, I came by to tell you that lessons should be cancelled tonight, as I will be unable to attend." Bellamy said with a cock of his head and an apologetic look. So this Lincoln was someone he didn't want to let down. He must also have a tight bond with this one.

"It's alright sir, the new trainees could use the night off. They were all yapping about how sore they were this morning. Maybe they will be quieter tomorrow." Lincoln said nodding his head.

"Or, they'll be hungover." Bellamy said furrowing his brows, suddenly looking concerned. I watched this interaction carefully, as I had him with Raven and Wick. He seemed to care a lot for his people, and his duties. Those were good aspects a leader is to have. Bellamy shook his head and sighed, he seemed to let it go.

"How is Octavia doing?" he asked Lincoln, who suddenly got a look in his eyes that made me smile. The way people lit up about one another made me happy. I didn't get to see many of those looks in Arkia.

"She is practically better than me, but don't let her hear that." Lincoln said shaking his head and smiling.

"Don't let her hurt anyone." Bellamy said joking.

"She is an excellent trainer, especially with the young girls. She inspires all of them." Lincoln said standing up a bit straighter. This man was also muscled greatly. He also had great feelings for Octavia.

"Will you mention that we stopped by, and tell her that we will be absent tonight." Bellamy said standing up straight and stiff. I looked at him confused, we would be? Lincoln glanced at me and then shot his eyes back to Bellamy.

"Of course I will." he said nodding his head. Bellamy nodded his head.

"Well, we must get going then." Bellamy said and turned to exit the room.

"It was so nice to meet you." I said smiling at Lincoln.

"You as well Miss Clarke." he said bowing his head. I quickly turned and followed Bellamy who was in a quick hurry to exit the training room.

"Come, I'm sure Joelle and Costas are already mad at us for being very late for lunch." Bellamy said quickly untying Jacks from the post.

He hopped upon the saddle and pulled me up behind him. I was barely on when he kicked hard into the horse's side, and we ran off. I flew back into Bellamy and clung to the front of the saddle, hoping I wouldn't fall off. I hit my head hard on his shoulder, his muscles had turn his body to stone, and I could feel a headache coming on.

We rocked back and forth on the horse and I closed my eyes. It felt like I was flying. Soon we slowed and made our way into the stable.

We left Jacks, and made our way back up the path to the castle. My head was throbbing.

We made our way into the kitchen to find Joelle, Costas and Remy yelling at us for being late. Ella walked in as we were eating a lunch of soup and little sandwiches.

"Oh my dear." she said rushing over to me. "Your pupils. Is your head alright dear?" she asked me. I shrugged.

"I have a little headache, it's nothing." I said trying to play it down.

"Oh nonsense, you must rest." Ella said. Bellamy began to protest, but Ella shot him a look that told him to be quiet.

"I'm serious Bushka, I'm alright." I said smiling.

"No no, come on, up to bed. A short nap will do you well." she said seriously. I smiled at everyone in the room, and allowed myself to be dragged up to my tower where Ella tucked me in and told me to get some rest. I did take a small nap, which helped my head. I quick jumped out of bed and walked down to the Gopher room where I found they were all gone, but there was a note.

"Dear Princess," I read out loud. The writing was in blue crayon. "Please, walk out back to the stable. Love, your Gophers." I read. I smiled. My Gophers. Of course.

I quick shoved the piece of paper into my back pocket of my jeans, and quick walked out to the stable. As I walked, I was curious as to what these children had planned. I walked into the barn where I found Bellamy and the Gophers had set up the barn into a romantic dinner.

"What is all this?" I asked softly. Bellamy was in a tux and had a cheeky grin on his face.

"Prince asked us to make a fairytale dinner!" Jerica screamed.

"Oh my." I said.

"Here, we borrowed this. I hope you don't mind." Arabella said with a shrug as she held up my tiara. I smiled and nodded my head as one boy stood on another and placed it on top of my head.

"Thank you." I said smiling at all of the Gophers.

"We're going to go now!" Hunter said pushing all the little ones out of the barn.

"This… this is amazing." I said smiling at Bellamy.

"This is what I had planned the first night you were here." he said shaking his head. That's why he was so upset that night.

"It's beautiful." I said smiling. Soon we were sitting, and eating, and then talking. We talked about everything. From our childhoods, to recent events, to the civil war.

"The burden we carry goes back a hundred years. I don't find that fair to our people now." Bellamy said seriously. I frowned and looked down at my plate. I nodded my head.

"I know, but there are only so many things we can do Bellamy." I said as I was swallowing.

"Clarke." he said softly. I knew what was coming. He was going to try to force me into marriage. I didn't know what to do.

"I don't want you to make any decisions you won't be happy with." he said with the gentlest voice I had ever heard him use. I looked up at him in shock.

"What?" I asked.

"I don't know who you have waiting back home. I don't want you to feel forced to fall in love with me. I don't want to be forced to fall in love with you either." he said, his voice cracking a bit.

"Do you," I stuttered, a bit hurt. "Do you not want to fall in love with me?" I asked dropping my fork and looking down at my hands. How foolish I was to think that this man could be friendly to me. That he could want me. He set this up to make it seem less hurtful when he shattered my heart.

He sighed and dropped his fork as well. Here it came. I knew it would come.

"I don't know what I want out of you Clarke. All I know is that I want you." he said looking at me.

"Don't say that." I whispered.

"It's true Clarke. Can we please just see where this goes? This next month, I don't want us to be tip toeing about each other. I want to see all of you. None of this polite fake crap." he said raising his voice.

"Maybe this is the real me." I said looking up to meet his eyes.

"Bull." he said standing up. I didn't know what that meant, but I was pretty damn sure he was implying that I was lying to me.

"You don't know that." I said standing up and shoving my chair behind me.

"Clarke, none of this is you. The you I know is the one with the bright blue eyes who didn't take it from me. The one who said no one tells her how to be a Princess. The one who leaves notes for Costas to leave you a cookie outside your bedroom after you've gone to bed. The one who is fiercely unafraid to do what's right. The one who sneaks out at night to switch her books out in the library because she can't get enough." he said walking towards me. I was taken aback. I didn't realize he knew that last bit.

"What am I supposed to do? I have to be on my best behavior around here." I snapped, looking up into his eyes.

His eyes nearly matched the darkness of his crown.

"Clarke. You need to be you. I'm falling for you real hard, real fast. I can't live like this. Acting like I'm not attracted to you, because it's the proper thing to do." he said scrunching his nose as he uttered the words.

"Well, what am I supposed to do?" I yelled at him, tears forming in my eyes. I hated arguing with him. And over this of all matters.

"I want you to call me yours. I want to call you mine. I just want you to give into this like I have." he said grabbing my upper arms.

"I have!" I yelled back at him. "You're the one acting all high and mighty like you're too good for me." I screamed turning away from him.

"Me?" he yelled back. "You close yourself off from me, and I don't think you even realize it." he said exasperated and letting go of me.

"How?" I asked him, my lips turning into a straight line and my nostrils flaring.

"Like, today." he said turning and giving me a scowl. "When I tried to get closer to you on the saddle, and you flinched away from me. Like I was going to hurt you or something. Is that what you're scared of? That I'm going to hurt you?" he said furrowing his brows with a hurt look on his face.

"No!" I yelled, suddenly understanding that he was hurt as well.

"Then what?" he demanded out of me, his eyes as wide as saucers filled with confusion.

"I thought you were disgusted by me." I yelled back. He looked like I was speaking a different language.

"What?" he said closing his eyes and shaking his head at me.

"Like when you took my plate away in the kitchen the first night saying I wasn't to eat that much. And today on the saddle when you felt my side. I know I don't have the body of a Princess, and I sure as hell don't expect anyone to look at me like I'm Octavia, or Raven." I said waving my hand in the air, as if I was shooing the idea away. "I have pudge. I have to squeeze into my jeans. I have the cheeks of a baby. I am no model, and you clearly thought the same thing." I said tears forming in the corners of my eyes.

"Is that what you think?" he said looking at me like I shot him. I nodded my head and sniffed. I wiped my eyes and my nose as I licked my lips.

"Oh god." he said as one of his hands flew up to his face and he ran it along the top of his forehead, down to his cheek where he shook his head.

"Princess." he said opening his eyes and looking dead into mine.

"You, are the most extraordinary woman I have ever met." he said walking to me.

"Please don't." I said putting one of my hands on his chest as he wrapped both of his arms around me.

"You are. I am so sorry that you have felt this way all this time." he said softly. I didn't say anything. I felt more tears form, but I didn't want to move. I had nothing to wipe them away with. He cupped my chin once more, like he had in the broom cupboard. Only this time I let him lift my head to look at him.

"You're beautiful." he whispered.

Then he leaned in, and I leaned up. He kissed me slowly, and softly. It was something I hadn't expected of him. I expected his kisses to be rough, and harsh. Nothing like what he was giving me right now. I didn't know what to do with my hands so I simply rested them on his chest panes. Soon, I was having trouble breathing so I leaned away from him. I looked up to find his brown eyes were looking directly into mine.

Here we go, I thought to myself.

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The next chapter is going to be a series of events, in a way, of what happens while Clarke is in the Grounds! Leave any Reviews you can think of please! XOXO


	5. Unexpected Thoughts

**Hey guys, in this chapter, it is just going to be a series of the events and days that Clarke has spent in The Grounds. It'll have all out favorite characters, and it is something that I worked on for quite a while! Let me know what you think!**

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"You are the only exception." ~ The Only Exception (Paramore)

 **Clarke POV:**

Day 6

The whole civilization showed up, I was shocked to discover that this was an activity that they did for fun around here. I thought it was ridiculously dangerous.

Bellamy told me it was one hundred percent safe, and he always won anyway. I was sitting between Octavia and Raven, who I had gone to visit almost every day for the past few days.

I was wearing my own pair of boots. They were bright blue, like my eyes. Bellamy had given them to me last night, and I was so excited. He knew how much I wanted a pair so I could ride all on my own.

I was in a pair of shorts that Octavia had let me borrow, because it was too hot out for jeans. I was also in a tank top. I don't think I had ever shown this much skin in one place. It seemed respectable though, because everyone here was in almost the same thing. I wish I had wore a hat like Octavia, rather than my tiara, because it was so sunny out, I was sure I was going to get sunburn.

Someone spoke into a microphone that the first contestant was getting ready at this moment.

"You ready for this Princess?" Raven asked nudging my shoulder.

"I just hope Bellamy knows what he's doing." I said sighing.

"Well, our boys have been doing this since they could learn to walk." Octavia said rolling her eyes.

"Why?" I asked, still not understanding the purpose of this.

"For the excitement." Raven said.

"The adrenaline." Octavia said wiggling her eyebrows.

"The rush." Raven said leaning into us with wide eyes and bobbing her head about. We all giggled and and smiled at one another. I was so happy I could have them with me.

"First up, we have Kyle Wick." the person said into the microphone. Raven shot up in her seat and screamed louder than everyone else as I watched the gate, where the bull was. Wick was up on the platform and with the help of two other people, he soon was upon the bull.

I watched with wide eyes, I knew that Bellamy did not want me to play with the bulls. He didn't mind any other creature, but I knew that he absolutely refused me to play with the bulls.

So why they were going to ride them was a complete mystery to me.

Wick hollered something and then the gate opened and the bull began bucking all about. I stood up with Raven and my mouth dropped.

"Oh my god!" I yelled at her.

"I know right?" she said with a huge grin, as Wick proceeded to go with the bull all about the arena.

"It's the toughest sport on dirt." Octavia said grinning. I watched with wide eyes, until eventually Wick jumped off as a buzzer went off. Everyone cheered, and he waved his hat in the air as some people in the arena shooed the bull back into behind the platform.

A new bull was in the arena now.

I sat down in between Raven and Octavia once more. I became entranced as I watched man after man try to conquer bull after bull. Only a few could do it.

Soon Lincoln was up, and Octavia screamed like a little school girl. I laughed and Raven was in tears as Octavia whooped and waved her hat all about like a crazy woman.

"What?" she said looking down at us in disapproval as we laughed at her.

"Sorry O, you know we love you." Raven said smiling at her. I nodded my head and rubbed her shoulder as she glared at us. She eventually rolled her eyes and began smiling again. We watched man after man, there were many close calls.

Soon Bellamy was up. I swallowed my nervousness as he strapped something onto his chest.

"Relax Princess, he's the best." Raven said rubbing my shoulder.

Everyone had soon discovered me and Bellamy, as he had a difficult time hiding it. He was constantly touching some part of my body, and his eyes were constantly on me.

He blew me a kiss and I smiled. I was still very uncomfortable with the idea of a bull hurting him. I knew that if something happened I would not be afraid to jump over the fence and wrestle the bull myself. Which I knew was very possible as we were sitting in the front row, which was as close to the arena as we could get.

The whole arena shook as people cheered and thundered their feet against the floor as their leader prepared to ride the bull.

"Oh no." Octavia said, her face falling.

"What?" I said.

"He has Ringo." Octavia said, and Raven winced at the sound of the name.

"Shit." Raven said.

"What?" I demanded, upset that neither of them were telling me what was going on.

"He's the meanest, nastiest bull. No one has ever been able to ride him for the whole time." Octavia said frowning. I whipped my head around to Bellamy who was talking to someone on the platform. Soon, Ringo was in the gate. And Bellamy was on him. Bellamy shouted something and the gate was opened.

I stood up and ran to the fence that separated us from them. I watched as Bellamy rode him with confidence. I was in a trance, he seemed to know what the bull was going to do and didn't bother backing down. I felt my mouth drop as the bull had bucked faster, harder, and higher than any of the other bulls had done. Bellamy stayed upon him though.

Soon the buzzer rang out and Bellamy jumped off the bull, and yelled. He flexed his muscles for his people and showed them his strength. I could see the veins on his neck as he punched the air and yelled for them. They all yelled and cheered back as the bull ran back behind the platform.

I screamed and jumped in the air, Octavia and Raven quickly joined me, and soon everyone was by the gate, flashing cameras and screaming. Bellamy grinned up at them and he locked eyes with me. He ran up to the fence where we were standing.

"Yeah baby!" he yelled and grabbed the back of my head and pushed his mouth onto mine. I smiled and grabbed the back of his head and locked my fingers through his hair. If the whole stadium was shaking before, it was vibrating with cheers and stomps.

Bellamy punched the air as he kissed me, this one was powerful. Full of happiness and pride. I let go and grinned.

"There's something I thought I'd never see." Octavia said, as she and Raven high fived. I grinned and Bellamy dropped down from the fence after giving me one more kiss on the cheek.

He raised one finger in the air, his pointer finger. Everyone responded and he marched back behind the platform where all the men patted him on the back and congratulated him. I was shaking with the excitement.

This was living I thought to myself.

Day 9

"Oh shit." Bellamy said looking towards the sky.

"What?" I asked looking above our heads.

"It's going to rain soon Princess." he said, and he kicked into the side of Jacks. We were out on our daily ride, and I was getting good at the reins.

"Rain?" I asked confused.

"Please tell me you've seen rain before?" he asked me. I shook my head no. There were many things that they had here that I had never even heard of back home. As we bounced back home, I heard a loud boom.

"What was that?" I asked, suddenly scared. This rain was something I had no clue of. It could be a weapon for all I knew.

"That, was thunder." Bellamy said.

"Oh." I said, still unsure of this whole ideal. We made it back into the barns, and as we were putting Jacks away, the breeze picked up. It was warm, but I knew it wouldn't be friendly.

I walked to the door where I discovered something falling from the sky. It was happening slowly, then soon it was like the sky had opened. The sun was out, but something was off. The clouds were darker.

"What is it?" I asked staring at it. Bellamy smiled at me.

"Water." he said out reaching his hand. He cupped some of it and showed me.

"What?" I asked confused. I put my hand out, and discovered it was harmless. It felt good. I grinned at him, and he looked at me with a warning look in his eyes.

"Clarke." he said raising his eyebrows at me. I threw my tiara into a pile of hay and pulled him out into the rain with me. He stumbled and tossed his crown next to mine.

"Clarke!" he yelled out. I laughed and spread my arms out and spun around as the rain fell onto me.

"Look at this!" I yelled out in delight.

"Usually, people try to avoid getting rain on them!" Bellamy yelled back grumpily.

"Why?!" I asked in disbelief and I grinned as I spun around more. Soon Bellamy was smiling and laughing at me. He picked me up and spun me around. I laughed and soon we were both dancing in the rain. As I laughed and spun around with him, in the pouring rain, I let go of all my inhibitions.

This was happiness I thought to myself.

Day 13

"No way." Raven said as she tried to steal a little black box from Octavia. "We are not watching this crap again." she said. Octavia and her wrestled over the thing that seemed to control the tv.

We were all in our sleep clothes in Octavia's room. We had spent the whole night eating good food that Ella and Joelle had brought us. They were poured over something called a magazine, it looked like one of my closet books, except it had a thinner paper, and had much more in it. We had spent the whole night laughing and telling jokes.

Eventually Raven gave up and allowed Octavia to control the tv. I soon discovered that it had moving pictures on it, and often the scenes were funny. The ones that Octavia put on however, often had scenes of boys and girls breaking each others hearts.

"So, Raven." I said smiling at her. "Will you tell us about you and Wick?" I asked trying to cheer her up. She smiled and looked down at her fingers.

"Ooo, good idea Clarkey." Octavia said nudging Ravens shoulder. Raven shoved Octavia away from her.

"You know how we are." Raven muttering focusing her attention back on the screen.

"No. I really don't." I said stretching out on Octavia's bed, looking down at Raven.

"Well. He's an annoying little shit, who thinks he knows everything." Raven said matter of factly, which had me and Octavia giggling. "But, when the work is done, he's my best friend. I couldn't live without him." she said burning.

"Aww, Rae. I didn't realize you were capable of feelings." Octavia teased.

"Shut up." Raven said whacking Octavia with a pillow, which had Octavia falling off the bed. I burst out laughing and couldn't breathe. Octavia huffed, and glared at Raven.

"Well O." Raven said tauntingly. "It's time for you to spill about you and Lincoln." Raven said smirking. Octavia lit up, and burned.

"What do you mean?" Octavia said.

"Oh please, even I can realize that. And I'm clueless." I said patting her on the back. They both giggled and Octavia sighed.

"It can't be. Bellamy would forbid it." Octavia said.

"Well Bellamy can stick that forbidden crap up his ass." I said. They both looked at me with wide eyes, as if they couldn't believe I had actually said that.

"What?" I said shrugging. "It's true. You're the Princess. You shall marry or be with or whatever with whomever you deem worthy." I said seriously to her.

"You're so right Clarkey, but Bellamy would be so mad." Octavia said sitting next to me, pulling her knees up to her chest and sighing. I rubbed her back.

"Who gives a damn." I whispered. "You two have the connection that everyone seems to have with someone around here." I said looking at her with honesty.

"Do you not have that back home?" Octavia asked looking at me quizzically. I shook my head.

"Often times, we have arranged marriages based on status." I said sadly.

"Well then why aren't you being arranged, don't get me wrong, I'm glad you and Bell have your thing, but what makes it different this time?" Octavia asked. Raven nodded her head along. I sighed and tucked my hair behind my ears.

"Ever since we split, Arkia deemed only men fit to rule. And being as I'm next in line for the throne, I am forced to pick a suitor by my eighteenth birthday, or I will be sorted into an arranged marriage. My parents are giving me a once in a lifetime chance here. I have less than three months to fall in love." I said in a hushed voice.

"Damn Princess." Raven said.

"Don't you love Bellamy?" Octavia asked with her head cocked to the side.

"I don't know. I'm pretty damn close." I said sighing.

"Well, I want you to know that if he screws up, I'll kick his ass." Octavia said with a sad smile. I burst out laughing.

"Thanks Tavia." I said shaking my head.

"Alright, enough of this dark stuff. I saw you sneaking into Bellamy's room last night. What's up with that?" Octavia said waggling her eyebrows. I gulped and whacked her with a pillow, trying to change conversation. She squeaked and fell off the bed. I burst out laughing and did the same with Raven. Soon we were in an all out pillow fight.

This was Laughter I thought to myself.

Day 15

"What is so important Bellamy?" I asked as he dragged me out of the castle in the middle of the night.

"Come on, I heard something was going on in the barn." he said as he yanked on my wrist a little harder. I groaned.

"Come on." I whined.

"We're almost there Princess." he said almost apologetically. Almost. We arrived at the barn, where we heard loud moans coming from one of the stables. I soon matched his pace as we ran to the stable where the noises were coming from. One of the horses, Biscuit, was giving birth.

"Oh my." I said as we stood there. The horse cried out in pain, and was breathing heavily. Bellamy and I looked at each other with wide eyes full of terror and confusion.

"What do we do?" Bellamy asked moving to the horse.

"I don't know, I don't even ride these things on my own, I don't know how to birthe one." I said panicking.

"We need to help her." Bellamy said. I nodded my head and knelt in front of her.

"Oh god, what do we do?" I panicked.

"I don't know. Get the baby out!" Bellamy said as he held the horse's head down. Biscuit was freaking out.

"Oh no." I panicked, every single nerve in my body was on edge. I had no clue what was going on, and I didn't want to know for that matter. Soon I saw one little horse leg, and I nearly threw up. "Bell, I can't do this." I said as the other popped out.

"Come on Clarke!" he begged. I swallowed my throw up and grabbed one leg with one hand, and another with the other. I closed my eyes and slowly but definitely surely, pulled the rest of the horse baby out. I quickly let go of the baby, and backed away. Biscuit sat up and licked her new baby clean. I was about to throw up.

"Bell." I said feeling pale. "I think I'm gonna faint." I said putting one hand against my head.

"Please don't Princess." he said quickly moving to me.

"Oh god." I said looking up.

"Come on, let's get you up to bed." he said scooping me up. I leaned against his shoulder and tried to focus on my breathing, not the fact that my stomach was churning.

"Can I stay with you?" I asked. Bellamy grinned.

"I've been waiting for you to ask that." he said. looking down at me.

"One condition." he said sternly. I looked up at him. "Once you're in. You have to stay." he said softly. I smiled and nodded my head.

Over the past two weeks, Bellamy and I had never left each others side. Everyone in the civilization knew that we were together, and everyone had grown to accept it, some even were happy. The Gophers were so happy, especially all the girls. They said that there were going to be fairytales written about us. Maybe they were right I thought to myself. As Bellamy carried me up the stairs and tucked me into his bed, and kissed my head, I had the scariest realization of all.

This is Love I thought to myself.

Day 20

"Come on Princess, we have a surprise for you." Octavia said pulling me out of the carriage. Today, we decided to go to the beach. Bellamy insisted that all our friends come.

There was Lincoln and Octavia, Wick and Raven, and then Bellamy and I. Remy and Joelle had packed us a picnic and Ella arranged for a carriage to be set up to take us to the beach and back. We would be here all day, and I was shaking with excitement.

"Well, here we are." Octavia said beaming as she and I fell to the sand. I smiled and looked up to the sky, where the sun was beaming down upon us. I raced Octavia to the water, and before we knew it, our feet were being hit over and over again by the waves. I turned my face to the sun, and closed my eyes. Taking in it's warm embrace. I smiled as I felt the rays fall upon my face. Warm hands wrapped around my middle, and I felt my smile turn into a full blown grin.

Bellamy.

"How is my princess today?" he asked.

"Perfect. Everyday is perfect with you." I said sighing. Bellamy let out a small laugh.

"Well, I think there's something that could make your perfect day even more perfect." he whispered in my ear. I turned and looked up at him confused.

Then I glanced over his shoulders to find all of my friends on the beach. I screamed and shoved him aside. They all ran to me and I ran to them. Wells met me first, wrapping me up and spinning me around. Harper followed quickly, with Maya, Monty and Jasper on her heels. I ran my fingers through Jasper's hair, I cupped Monty's cheek and I clung to Maya. I seemed to all just cling to them, as if I would lose them again if I let go.

"What are you doing here? How are you here?" I asked.

"Your boyfriend there certainly has a way with words." Harper said glancing over at Bellamy who still hadn't taken his eyes off of me.

"He convinced the whole Arkian guard to let us come to the beach!" Jasper said with his eyes popping out of his head.

"I mean it is technically on the border, so it's not like they had much of a choice." Maya said rolling her eyes.

"But still, it was very honorable for him to come to them about it." Wells said smiling at me.

"God. I missed you guys." I said before hugging them all again.

"Well! Are you gonna introduce us or will we have to just assume for the rest of the day?" Harper exclaimed. I laughed and introduced them to the rest.

"This is Octavia, Raven, Wick, Lincoln, and Bellamy." I said going around the circle. Ending with Bellamy wrapping an arm around my side. We spent the day taking pictures, playing games, talking, and eating. It was a good day.

As the sun was starting to set, and everyone was lying about the beach. Bellamy and I had sat next to each other watching the sky turn different colors. I turned to look at him. His features, were being locked away in my mind.

"How do you know exactly what to do?" I asked him. He turned to face me, with his warm brown eyes.

"Because I know exactly you." he said with a small smile. I smiled and leaned into him. He wrapped an arm around me, and rested his cheek against my head.

"Princess, in ten days you will have to go back home." he sighed.

"Unless I ask for more time." I said shrugging.

"Your friends would not be very happy with me if I kept you any longer." he said looking up to watch them. Maya and Jasper were layed about much like Bellamy and I, Harper was walking along the beach with Octavia, Lincoln and Monty were playing a game in the water with Wick and Wells, and Raven appeared to be the ref. I smiled and shook my head.

"Or I could just not go home." I said quietly. Bellamy snorted.

"Yeah, I think we'd cause a full blown war if I kept you to myself. Your people need you Clarke." he said seriously. I sighed.

"I know, I love you though. I want to spend all of my days with you." I said closing my eyes. Remembering this moment.

"Trust me Princess, I want the same." he said gently. I looked up at him and lightly kissed his lips.

This was what I wanted, I thought to myself.

As we were heading home, I smiled and leaned my head against Bellamy's shoulder. He held one of my hands and I slowly closed my eyes and fell asleep. As we drew near to the castle, I could feel Bellamy lightly shake my shoulder.

"No." I mumbled.

"Princess you must wake up." he insisted.

"No." I said more firmly this time. I could feel and hear him sigh, he was getting fed up with my antics.

"Clarke, please." he said nicely.

"Fine." I said getting up and scooting away from him.

"Don't be like that." Bellamy said sharply. I huffed and ignored him.

"Don't ignore me young lady." he said gripping my wrist. I tried to wriggle away from him, but he had intense upper body strength. I looked him dead in the eye, and this time, I could feel that it was in my eyes that the power was.

"Don't tell me what to do." I snapped. His eyes widened a little bit, but his pupils narrowed.

"You are going to regret this attitude miss." he said. I felt a course of fear shoot through my body, this wasn't like Bellamy at all. The carriage stopped at that moment and Bellamy threw me over his shoulder.

"Bellamy what the hell?" I yelled. He carried me up all the stairs leading to his bedroom. He threw me on his bed and glared at me.

"You shouldn't talk to your prince that way." he said taking his shirt off.

"Bellamy." was all I could manage to say, he had never gone this far before. I didn't even know how to react. I just laid there, while he crawled up on top of me.

"Let it happen." he whispered. Just like that, I went under. He kissed me like he never had before. I felt nerves of my body react that I hadn't even known were there.

"Bell," I whimpered. He stopped what he was doing and looked me in the eye. "I'm scared." I admitted to him. His eyes changed in that moment. They were no longer full of power and determination, there was nothing but care in them.

"Okay. We can stop." he said slowly lifting himself up off of me. I wrapped one of my hands behind his neck and made him look at me.

"I've never done anything like this Bellamy." I said softly. His body relaxed and he tucked a piece of my blonde hair behind my ear.

"I can wait for you. You are the most beautiful flower." he said smiling at me. He kissed my forehead and rolled over.

I got up out of the bed and I saw the panic in his eyes as I looked at him over my shoulder. I turned back away from him and pulled my shirt off. I then walked over to his dresser drawer. I could feel his eyes on my back. In that moment I felt something that I hadn't felt in a long time.

I felt sexy.

I pulled down my pants and then pulled one of his shirts out of the drawer and pulled it on. I turned to face him and smiled. He was laying there, staring at me.

"Scoot. You're on my side." I said smiling. He grinned and stayed put.

"You'll just have to sleep around me." he said. I rolled my eyes and hopped into bed with him. He wrapped his arms around me and I smiled.

"I love you Princess." he said.

"I love you too." I said softly.


	6. Unapologetic Commitment

In that moment I knew that I wanted him. Oh how wrong I was over two months ago when I thought I hated this creature. This beautiful creature. I looked at his tattoos and examined them. He had them all over his chest, and his back. They appeared to flow together, almost as if they told a story. I was about to ask him about them, but then I noticed that he was asleep. I smiled and decided that I could ask him tomorrow.

When I awoke I discovered that I was alone. Bellamy must have already left. Why he let me sleep is ridiculous to me. I smiled and stretched out. I don't think I had been this well slept in months. When I looked over at the nightstand, I noticed there was a note on the table. In blue crayon. I grinned and read it.

"Dear Princess," I read out loud. "Today is a special day. It is one of your last days in The Grounds." I read softly. They were right. I had four days left. "So today is all about you." I said and grinned. "When you awake, ring this bell, and you will receive a surprise." I said and saw there was a small silver bell next to the table.

"Well what on earth?" I asked. I picked it up and rolled it between my fingers before giving it a ring. Almost instantly a whole fleet of gophers came barreling into my room.

"Good Morning!" they all announced.

"Why hello." I said with wide eyes.

"This is for you." Hunter said gesturing Jerica to give me a tray filled with breakfast food and a book. "Prince Bellamy said to make sure you were entertained, and content." Hunter said.

"Well what would make me happy would be all of you up here with me." I said with a grin as I pinched their cheeks. Soon all six of them were in my bed.

"So, would you like to tell me what all of this is about?" I asked as I took a gulp of my orange juice.

"Prince Bellamy is going to-" Arabella started.

"No!" Liza yelled as Darren covered her mouth.

"We're not to tell you." John said.

"Well. Are you sure I can't bribe you?" I asked as I gestured to my tray and winking.

"Princess we can't." Hunter said disappointed.

"That's alright, so tell me what else is planned for today." I said.

"You are to spend the morning in leisure." Darren said with a funny face.

"Then you get time with Octavia and Raven." Arabella said.

"Then you prepare." Liza said.

"And then it's time." Jerica said with a smile.

"Time for what?" I asked.

"Uh, we must go now." Hunter said pulling them all off the bed and out the door. I angrily crunched on a piece of toast.

"Well what in the world." I said, as I opened the book and began reading. A while after, I heard a knock on my door.

"Heyo." Raven said as she bounced onto Bellamy's bed.

"What's up chickadee?" Octavia said joining her.

"Thank god you guys are here, I've been held captive all day." I said grinning at them. Raven rolled her eyes.

"Like you haven't enjoyed every minute of being in his bed." she said with a sly smile.

"Eww. Too far Rae." Octavia said scrunching her nose. I laughed.

"Nah, we're here to entertain you." Raven said.

"Well can you tell me what the hell is going on?" I asked. They both shook their heads no.

"Sorry honey pie. No can do." Octavia said. I sighed.

"Well can you just tell me what the drama is?" I asked. They smiled and nodded their heads. They spent the next few hours telling jokes and stories. Soon we heard a knock on the door. It was Ella.

"Hello dearie." she said smiling. "I have quite the surprise for you." she said and swung the door open completely. There was Cynthia, Harper, and Maya. I nearly cried as I ran to Cynthia and clung her to me. She ran her fingers through my hair and hushed me.

"Stop now child, what's all the huss over? I'm no big deal like you flower." she said cupping my face. I held onto her hands as they held onto me.

"I've missed you so much Cynthia." I said with happy tears falling down my face.

"I have missed you as well." she said and kissed my head. Soon, introductions were made and everyone was in my room. With Octavia, Raven, Harper, and Maya talking in one corner, and Ella off to grab something. Cynthia and I were in another corner as she brushed my hair.

"What aren't they telling me Cynthia?" I asked. She shrugged.

"I was told to keep quiet." she said.

"Where are mother and father?" I asked. She was silent for a beat.

"They were busy." she said.

"Lies." I said with my shoulders shrugged.

"Some people still haven't come to the same point as you and I child." she said glancing over at Octavia and Raven.

"They are sweet girls, your friends." she said smiling. I smiled with her.

"Yes, they are." I agreed.

"And that boy," Cynthia said looking down at me with a knowing look.

"You met Prince Bellamy?" I asked.

"I recognized him from the instant his eyes met mine sweet child. He is quite the gentleman, not so bad on the eyes either." she said smiling.

"My painting." I said, almost completely forgotten.

"Yes." she said.

"I am happy with him." I said quietly.

"As you deserve to be." she said placing the brush down, and Ella entered with about a dozen bags.

"Well, my dear, it is time to get you ready." she said. With that, for the next several hours I was stripped, waxed, and redone.

"I still don't understand what all this is about." I said shaking my head, as the girls had all exited and I was left with Cynthia.

"You must have faith child." Cynthia said.

"I haven't seen Bell all day." I sighed.

"You love him." Cynthia said staring at me. I looked up at her, with the words seemingly caught in my throat. I was unable to speak, so I simply nodded my head. She smiled and held her hands together. "This is the most magical moment." she said smiling, her eyes crinkling at the corners.

"I love you Cynthia." I said.

"I love you too child." she said. Ella entered the room.

"Well, the others are getting ready right now." she said smiling. She pulled up a chair and we began to talk.

"Ella, you never told me about your love." I said. She looked down at her lap and smiled.

"Thomas." she began and I leaned up against Cynthia and listened to Ella.

"Thomas was a soldier, and I was a maid of the castle. I had been, since I was sixteen." she began her story. "He would sneak away from his barrack at night to come see me, and he would often sing me to sleep. He had the most beautiful voice." she said looking off.

"He wished to marry me, and I happily said yes. I was the happiest woman on earth, it seemed." she said. "In his vows, he told this story about how life was a garden. How he had been searching for the most pure flower, and when he stumbled upon it he was completely taken aback. He said he fell in love with the most beautiful flower out of the whole garden." she said, her eyes glassy as if she was replaying it in her head.

The most beautiful flower.

I felt my heart rate increase.

That is what Bellamy named me.

"Then, he went off to war." she said, her face much more serious. "Our enemies to the east had kidnapped him. Tortured him. Killed him, for information that he did not posses." she said. "To this day, I have not had another love like him." she finished with a smile.

"I am so sorry for your loss." I said softly.

"Don't be child." she said with a smile. "Be grateful for the love." she said, as a tear rolled down her face. At that moment there was a knock on the door.

"It's time." was spoken, and Ella snapped out of her daze, but mine had just begun. Bellamy called me the most beautiful flower. What had this meant? I hadn't realized just how deeply that statement meant to him.

"Well flower, go on." she said. I took one more look at myself. I was in a dark dress. One with silver accents. My hair fell down in soft curls about my face, with dark make up. My black flatts were comfortable, and I felt nervous. I had no clue what was going on.

As Cynthia led me out down a path I had never taken before, I began to grow anxious.

"Go get 'em." she said giving me a slight push. I walked forward until I saw a light.

"What?" I whispered and walked closer to the light. There I was at the top of the staircase, in a beautiful dimly lit ballroom.

"Wow." I whispered. People were dancing slowly. All of them looked so elegant. Not gaudy, or overdone like in Arkia. Simple worked so beautifully for these people. I felt my tiara start to slide, and I slipped it back upon my head.

"Princess Clarke." I heard a soft voice say over a microphone, and I slowly walked down the stairs as everyone smiled and applauded. I was soon overtaken by how many large people were surrounding me. I was used to being around one or two at a time, but this many people was astounding.

"Princess." I heard a familiar voice say behind me. I turned around to see Bellamy with his tux and crown, and a smirk to follow both.

"What is this Bell?" I asked.

"Dance with me?" he asked offering his hand. I nodded my head. I took his hand and he took my heart. We danced all around the room as he whispered things in my ear. He made me laugh, and he made me smile. The way he looked at me was enough to make me feel at peace.

Suddenly after dancing for quite sometime, the music stopped, and Bellamy walked up to the stage where the band was playing.

"I have called you all to my home tonight for a reason." he said and the gophers ran up to me, all dressed up with smiles on their faces. Jerica insisted on being picked up, and Darren held my hand. They all stood about me, and I noticed how not only young people filled this large area, but people of all ages. It almost seemed as if-

"I have asked each and every one of our people to join us tonight, because I have a very special moment, that I would like us all to experience." he said, with his face sobering. I looked around the room and caught eyes with Octavia, Raven, Harper and Maya.

"What is going on?" I mouthed at them and they all just grinned at me.

"There is someone here." I looked and locked eyes with Cynthia and Ella, and they both were clinging to each other. Almost in tears. I gripped onto Jerica as I realized what was happening. I snapped my head back to Bellamy as he looked me in the eye.

"Someone that means the world to me. Princess Clarke, of Arkia, will you please join me?" he asked gesturing me to him.

I felt frozen, but the gophers gave me a push and Jerica removed herself from me. I slowly made my way up the stairs and stood next to him. I asked him with my eyes what the hell was going on.

"These past months have meant nothing but the world to me. I have fallen in love with you." he said, and I felt tears coming on. I didn't cry however, I could feel everyone in the audience already tearing up for me.

"I never thought I could love, until I met you." he said with a sad smile. Like he was going to cry.

"I don't want to love anyone else." he said standing up a bit straighter.

"And I don't want anyone else for as long as I die." he said and that's when I could hear my heart hammer in my chest. He dropped down to one knee, and I felt my whole mouth open as I breathed unevenly.

He looked down at my feet, and pulled something out of his pocket. I placed a hand on my chest to calm my frantically beating heart. He opened up a small black box and in it was the most beautiful silver and black ring.

"Clarke Griffin, Princess of Arkia, will you marry me?" he said looking up into my blue eyes with nothing but hope, and love. I grinned and felt tears falling down my face.

"Yes." I said nodding. The whole room burst into thundering applause and cheering.

"Yes, yes yes!" I yelled as tears streamed down my face and he stood up and wrapped both his arms around me into the tightest embrace.

"I love you so much." I said with tears streaming down my face. He gripped me so tightly, it was as if all my broken pieces fit together.

"I love you Princess." he said. He leaned back and kissed me. Then he placed the ring onto my finger, and I felt complete. Like everything in the world made sense. There was nothing more that I could have wanted. I looked out into the audience and saw everything that made me happy.

I wanted this to stay.

I wanted to stay.

I wanted him.

"I can't believe you." I said as I leaned into him. He wrapped an arm around me and smiled out at his people.

"Well it had to be a surprise yeah?" he said through his smile.

"You are such a jerk." I said waving at the gophers.

"A jerk that you're marrying." he said looking down at me. I looked up at him, and I couldn't hold back my grin for one second. Soon, the applause died down, and we went out to thank people, and accept our congratulations.

"Well. I never thought I'd see the day." Octavia said punching her brother in the arm.

"I'm so happy for you." Raven said as she and Octavia both hugged me. Bellamy went off to talk to Wick and Lincoln.

"This means we're sisters." I said smiling.

"Maybe we can do like a blood pact to actually become sisters." Octavia said grinning. Lincoln walked up to Octavia and asked her to dance in that moment. I glanced over at Bellamy who smiled and nodded at me. He was in such a good mood he couldn't hold that happiness back from his sister.

The night went on, and I danced and drank. I laughed and talked with everyone that was important to me. There seemed to be nothing out of place.

It was, perfect.

Soon people began to leave, and as I waved goodbye to all of them, I realized I had too much to drink. I stumbled away from the party, not wanting to embarrass myself in front of the crowd. I found my way back to Bellamy's room. And as soon as I opened the door, darkness.


End file.
